Transformers Prime: Rise of the Maximals
by JupiterJones
Summary: The ruins of Darkmount hold a secret. Will the Autobots uncover the true purpose of Shockwave's last project on Earth? Whethere they fail or succeed, lives will be changed forever. Post Movie Prime AU, Prime's not dead, Decepticons not disbanded. some G1 Characters/personalities will be added. Rated T for safety. Canon pairings only. Some OC.
1. Chapter 1

**Transformers Prime**

_Rise of the Maximals_

_**Preface:**_ So here I go again, lets hope I can continue this plot bunny. This is a post Prime Movie AU with a few.. minor tweaks. Prime didn't sacrifice himself, and Megatron didn't quit being a Decepticon.. he fled to parts unknown to recover from his possession.

I'm also time skipping a few years into the future. Raf is fresh out of high school and taking online college courses. Miko and Jack are sworn in as government agents (mostly a formality.) Autobots have been busy rebuilding and the Decepticons have been in hiding. The Predicons have been.. aloof. Only occasionally being spotted but not really interacting. I'm be bringing in some familiar G1 faces/personalities.. Like Wheeljack being back to his quirky mad science thing.

_**Disclaimer: **_I do not own transformers or the characters from the show, I only own my OCs and the plot.

_**Rating: **_T, but probably more geared to young adults. The story will touch upon transgender stuff, some violence, Adult topics/situations (but no depictions), Language and large amounts of ham.

If you find any lemons, please put them in the bin at the front desk. Lemonade will be served shortly after. Limes will be fired from a cannon, and flames will be used to warm my toes.

* * *

_Chapter 1_

Jack sighed heavily as he Leaned against the side of the building that had been recently labeled as "New Autobot City Headquarters." Miko was, as usual, late to pick him up. She was probably taking the newest arrival on a unnecessary tour of the Military base slash home away from home on Earth. He smiled a little at the memory when Arcee came back with the news. There were building the city as a sort of embassy, that would be permanently linked to another city on Cybertron via Spacebridge. The US government almost didn't want to let them, but Prime was able to negotiate a reasonable compromise. Namely there are a lot of bots already headed to Earth, who need repairs and fuel before they can head back to Cybertron, space bridge or not. Secondly, there are many dangerous Cybertronian artifacts still littered across the world that need collecting, cataloging and possibly quarantining. Though Prime did sweeten the deal by handing over some communications tech. NASA was rather happy from what he heard.

Which brought Jack to his current situation. Perceptor had come out of hiding a few months ago, and was just now stationed here for the purpose of analyzing some of the lesser known items they've uncovered. The timing of his arrival couldn't be much better. Just this morning the satellites noted an anomaly at the ruins of Darkmount, and they should have been on their way half an hour ago!

Mercifully, Miko and Perceptor finally arrived. The latter had taken the odd choice of a half track research truck as his alt mode, but at least it had plenty of room inside as the door popped open. "I apologize for extended tardiness. However, Miko insisted that we acquire some form of sustenance for you and her for your consumption upon arrival at our destination." Percepter spoke blandly.

Jack smirked at Miko who seemed unamused as he got in and buckled up. "Percy wont let us eat on the ride over." She huffed.

"Can you blame him? I've seen you eat. Even Bulkhead wont let you do that." Jack grinned. "Anyways, we're lucky that whatever the satellites are picking up isn't really moving, so we don't need to be in too much of a hurry. So don't try and break any speed limits."

"Although Miko has attempted to encourage me to violate your speed safety regulations, I can assure you it is not my inclination, nor advisable to do so with my current choice of Alternate form." Perceptor droned.

"He had to pick a vehicle design that can barely get to highway speeds.." Miko grumbled. "You know you sound like a speak and spell when you talk, right?"

"I was unaware of this coincidental occurrence. However, my speech is a result of the deletion of algorithms that construe tone and emotion in my voice. The crude, but educational device I have now researched by utilizing your planets.. rather remarkable information network, sounds like me because of its primitive design and programming."

Jack blinked. "Why would you delete that? Wouldn't that affect your personality?"

"In order. To optimize my data processing ability, and no. My personality remains intact as the programming only acts as a form of translator between my spark and my mind." Percy responded quickly.

"Don't get him started about the mind and spark thing... he can go on for hours and hours about it." Miko grumped as she looked into the bag of take out food.. reaching in to snitch a fry.

"Please do not consume fuel while inside my interior, Miko." Perceptor reminded.

Jack chuckled. "So, how are you liking Earth?"

"It is endlessly facinating. And difficult to surmise where to begin analysis. However, more pressing matters concerning Darkmount are of a higher priority. At minimum, it will be an excellent example of a Cyberformed area, with the intact non-Cyberformed terrain and lifeforms nearby to use as a sort of reference point for future understanding. I am certain that the termination point of the Cyberformed area will be exceedingly interesting to analyze."

"I'm.. sure it will be.. Ah here's the checkpoint." Jack replied as he and Miko dug out their ID badges.. and flashed them to the guards when they came to the window.

As the gate was being opened one of them spoke. "Hazmat suits are in the shed, if you think you need them. But I'm told you shouldn't if you just avoid falling in the glowing blue stuff."

Miko rolled her eyes as Jack responded. "We're well aware the dangers of exposure to Energon. No need to remind us."

"Very well, Agent Darby. You may go now." The man waved him through the gate.

The remainder of the ride continued on in silence, until they arrived at the ruined tower's base. Miko hopped out and cheerfully yelled "finally!" as she dug out a burger and some fries before handing out the remainder to Jack. Perceptor then transformed and began surveying the area. "Fascinating. What exactly were the details of the anomaly?"

"Thats the odd part, something about an increase in heat and nighttime florescence. Flyover didn't reveal anything obvious, so we needed an expert to take a look at it. For all we know, there could be a weapons cache cooking off underground." Jack supplied as he dug out his PDA and pulled up the report before sending the file to Perceptor's datapad.

"Hmm, certainly unusual." Perceptor said as he glanced at the data and committed it to memory. "Also unusual.. I'm seeing a very flat base level.. with no apparent entrance to the substructure. Considering the height Darkmount possessed, it should have extended fairly deep underground, and have access ports for the lower levels." Perceptor paused abruptly as he looked from one side to the other. "Are you certain the previous measurements are accurate? The radius of Cyberformed matter at the base is larger than reported by at minimum 3 feet."

"Well if they used the satellites to measure it.. it could be off by around that much.. but we weren't there when they did the measuring." Miko supplied between gulps of burger.

Perceptor nodded after a moment and resumed his examining and scanning of the ruin. "Just as I suspected.. there is a deeper structure.. but no entrance."

Miko squeezed between a twisted hole in the ruing to join Perceptor in his examination of Darkmount's ground floor. "Maybe they sealed it up intentionally?"

"Possible. And not unlikely. Especially if Shockwave was indeed stationed here. He had a preference to having multiple secret labs."

"So its likely theres a secret entrance somewhere around here? Do you think the readings we got earlier indicate it being used?" Jack asked as he stumbled in after Miko.

"Again, possible, but also likely he made it as an emergency storage. Having to blast his way in would also prevent other Decepticons from snooping where he did not want them. However, I do not think the readings indicate an active lab." Perceptor supplied.

"So what now?" Jack asked.

Perceptor paused a few moments before replying. "Well, the most straight forward solution.. is to target an area where the plating is thinnest and open a hole with an energetic weapon. Please stand back."

The millisecond Jack and Miko got behind cover, Perceptor fired his shoulder mounted weapon at the floor.. cutting a s very precise hole before giving it a brief kick to knock the 'plug' free. "How very fascinating."

"What do you see?" Miko asked as she approached to peek down the hole.

"I am uncertain. The machinery is unfamiliar.. however something very similar to Synth-En is coursing through the pipes which extend..." Perceptor paused to jump down the hole. "For several miles before the curve of which terminates the distance at which I can measure them."

"That shouldn't be right.. the Omega Lock only struck this spot... this sort of expansion shouldn't be here." Jack frowned.

"Unless the cons were really good about building tings quickly." Miko added.

"Analysis of the wall structure indicates a different possibility. That the purpose of the machinery is to expand the tower's base infrastructure. Further analysis is needed to know for certain, as well as an exploration into the length of the tunnels. The increase of heat could be a result of a still actively expanding network. I would suggest ground penetrating radar to map out the number and extensiveness of the tunnels. Though I highly recommend avoiding damage to the pods along the tunnel walls.. they seem to be reservoirs of Synth-En" Perceptor droned as he pulled himself out of the hole. "In the meantime, I will take some soil samples for further research before we depart and make our report."

"Got it, we'll wait by the shed then." Jake sighed as he walked away. He just _knew_ something bad was going to come from this.

* * *

Meanwhile, miles away, at a place called Windchester Ranch, Joan Maher was stuck in a conundrum. She had come out all this way, to take pictures of farm animals and wildlife to sell in her stock photography store. Today, one of her friends, Seth Windchester, mentioned that they got a bit of weird looking stuff growing in the back corner of their land, and that it might make for an interesting picture. Of course, now that she was there, she wasn't sure if she should call the CDC, or fish and game.

Seth, for all his good points, wasn't terribly bright sometimes. Just because his cows weren't dead, didn't mean it was harmless... or normal. But he never was someone who openly said much about himself or other people, and more than willing to jump to someone's defense if he felt that they needed it. Case in point, herself. He never said a word about how she dressed when she was still in the early parts of transitioning from a man, hell, he chewed out more than a few he caught talking about her behind her back. Simple man he may be, but he had a way to cutting through to the core of things and smashing people with their own logic. It was like her mom used to say, "You can't be smart at everything."

Still. Seth was right, it was interesting to look at. Strange, metallic looking plants jutting up from the ground, surrounding a large pool of swirling yellowish fluid.. tiny blue trickles running down into it and sinking below the yellow. For a moment, she was reminded of the bright colors found in Yellowstone, but the weird metallic stuff didn't match up. What was more, she could swear she saw something swimming in the yellow murk.

"How long, has this been here, Seth?" Joan asked.

"Oh about... three years I reckon. Didn't have the yellow stuff at the time.. but it bubbled up on its own eventually. I didn't find out about till I drove over it with my four wheeler. Pop just told me not to mess with it, who knows what got buried out here by unscrupulous folk years ago." Seth replied. "As long as its not makin' the cows sick, he told me best not to talk about it. Last thing we need was a bunch of guys in suits shutin' us down for something that isn't even an issue. It sparkles kinda pretty at night though. I think its some kind of mineral thing.. but the 'net isn't much help in findin' out."

Joan nodded and crept closer, setting her tripod down. "I swear theres something swimming in it."

"Could be a turtle, or a catfish... I've seen catfish drag themselves over land to nearby ponds before." Seth offered. "I don't know how, the stuff isn't exactly pleasant to touch.. the blue stuff burnt my fingers good, wasn't about to touch the yellow."

"Got any mason jars you can spare? I kinda want to get some of this to take home.. if anything it might look interesting in a dark room... I also got a old friend who still talks to me.. he's a chemist now, he might be able to tell me how to find out what it is." Joan noted.

"I got a question though.. I see the blue runnin' into the yellow.. but ain't they supposed to make green? I never got why the stuff isn't green." Seth asked.

Joan shrugged. "Maybe the blue is just that much denser than the yellow stuff? Maybe theres something in the yellow thats metabolizing.. err eating whatever makes it blue? I don't really know."

Seth looked at Joan thoughtfully and then shrugged. "I guess that makes sense. Like how oil floats on water or something. I'll go fetch a couple of jars." Seth added before climbing on the back of his four wheeler.

Once Seth had sped off she took a moment to readjust the falsies she was wearing inside her bra.. the ride over there had jostled them out of position.. and it was starting to get uncomfortable. Once re-adjusted, she went back to examining the weird metallic plant like things. She could almost swear she could see a hint of circuitry inside them. "So very strange.. Maybe some undiscovered species of life bubbled up a couple years ago." She muttered to herself. She did faintly recall the glacier that broke off and let out a gusher of primordial ooze.. that hit the news years ago.

Joan was well entranced with taking a picture of one of the more 'flower like' growths whens he heard the distant rumbling of Seth's four wheeler.. followed by a splash of something in the yellow fluid. She turned around to try and spot what it was.. but it had vanished.. save from a ripple in the 'water' and a few yellow droplets that had briefly tingled as the struck her skin.

"Oh hey, I also got this ol' turkey baster we're gonna throw out. You can use to get some of tha' stuff without dippin' the jar in... Be cleaner anyways." Seth offered as he unscrewed the lids to the jars.

Joan smiled. "That'll work just fine. Thanks Seth." She grinned as she used to to 'slurp' up the fluid and deposit in the jars. And after about half an hour, she had half a jar of the blue, and a whole jar of the yellow. If only because the blue was only in trickling lines that were hard to suck up with the baster.

"You want a ride back, you want to walk?" Seth asked as he help Joan put her camera stuff back in the bag.

"I think I'll ride.. I don't want to be in this heat any longer than I have to." Joan nodded.

"Can't blame yah." Seth nodded as he saddled up and waited for Joan to get on. If'n you ever need anything, don' hesitate to call, okay? Me an Debbie worry about you sometimes, ya know?"

Joan smiled. "I will, that goes the same for you too." She chuckled as they started to round Seth's house and pull up to where she got parked. "So what brought that on this time?"

"Ah.. you know.. McGruger runnin' his yap about shit he don' know. Even Father Matthew has had about enough of it. I swear he actually got him mad last Sunday!"

Joan blinked, she wasn't really a church person, but she did know most of the folks who attended, and has met Father Matthew more than a few times. Father Matthew has the easy going attitude and patience of a saint. Getting him angry was about as easy as setting fire to an iceburg. "Do I want to know how?"

".. Not really. McGruger said some downright awful things.. that have no business being said, let alone repeated. I thought he could get better with time.. but.. he's only gettin' worse every day. Somthin' eatin' that man up inside. You don' hate like tha' without reason yaknow? Sheriff's worried he's gonna do something rash.. either to himself or someone else. I don' think he knows about.. Yaknow... that. But that don' mean he wont try and hurt other people just because." Seth supplied as Joan loaded her car up.

"I'll be careful, Seth. Say hi to Debbie for me when she gets home from the diner." Joan smiled as she climbed into her car and started up. Seth waved as Joan drove away.

* * *

Deep beneath the Earth, in a cramped room filled with monitors and machinery... a single screen flickered to life. _::Suitable test subject identified. Target Marked. Tracking Target. Beginning Phase One of backup protocol 90-66 Beta 01. Initialize Program: Key of Vector Sigma. Awaiting Authorization code.::_

A seeming eternity passed before the screen flickered again. _::Remote access identified. User: Shockwave. Authorization code: Confirmed. Program initialized. Locking terminals.::_ And with that the terminals went dark again, even as other machinery started to hum to life. Somewhere across the stars, Shockwave stared at his monitor screen. If he had lips, he would be smiling. "Your move, Perceptor."

* * *

Read and review please!


	2. Chapter 2

**Transformers Prime**

_Rise of the Maximals_

_**Disclaimer: **_I do not own transformers or the characters from the show, I only own my OCs and the plot.

* * *

_Chapter 2_

Rain. If there was anything most bots hated about Earth, it was rain. Especially two Autobot twins who were stuck on guard duty up above ground. Raf was mildly thankful he could only hear some of the whining and bickering from Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. He and Perceptor had hit it off well.. well as far as he could tell. They were mostly silent as they tried to make sense of the data in the system they were spliced into. They had found terminals in some places, but they refused to come online when prodded, so now he and Perceptor were trying to work around them.

A radio crackled to life. "This is bravo team, we've mapped out sector 7F with the radar. Looks like it just keeps on going and going. We're moving on to the next one now. Any luck getting into the computers?" Jack asked over the radio.

"Negative. The network has been highly effective in resisting our multiple attempts of intrusion. However it shows identifiers typical of Shockwave." Perceptor responded without looking up from his screen.

"Uhm, translation.. Raf?" Jack asked.

"Coding is a lot like handwriting, everyone has their particular quirks and style. This matches up with how Shockwave codes things. Knowing how he writes code will help us break through the security." Raf explained.

"Right on. We'll check in if we find anything or after we finish this sector. Jack out." Jack replied.

Perceptor reached over to press a button on the datapad. "Alpha team, do you have any findings to report?"

"Other than its mega spooky down here and Huffer is one heck of a grump? No, nothing, nada. Its like a twisted maze of tunnels down here.. and it seems like the network goes down for miles too. I think we're on the fifth sub basement now." Miko replied.

"Show what you know squishy. We're on the sixth, I can tell by how my right servo motor itches." Huffer groaned.

"Yeah yeah, whatever old man. We're heading back up to update the current map for the next team." Miko replied.

"Very well. I'll put Sunstreaker and Sideswipe on deck for the next excursion. I believe their punishment detail has gone on long enough." Perceptor replied.

"See yah when we get back! Miko out!" Miko cheerfully exclaimed.

"Hey, Perceptor? I finally got a good read on one of the background programs running. It looks like a sort of tracking program." Raf insisted. "See here, its pinging for tracers, and then receiving pings from.. at least half a dozen. And relaying this information to another program I haven't identified yet."

Perceptor turned to examine Raf's screen. "You are indeed correct. Your understanding of Cybertronian language and coding is superlative. Can you triangulate the locations of the tracked targets?"

"Yes, but it might take a few days to get anything useful. Near as I can tell its using a detection system best suited for tracking things within a system, rather than a remote algorithm. So I need to decode the coordinate map and scale it to overlay with the structure's size." Raf frowned as he examined the data. "Shockwave must have remote access, and probably discretely uploaded the Synth-En formula after he cracked it. Which explains the stockpile. But if thats in here, its hard to find, because the database is a mess."

"Possibly an intentional method of deterrence. To limit your effectiveness. However, I believe that Shockwave may be very much aware of our intrusion. Several project files became active not long after we initially discovered the facility. I am still trying to decrypt their purpose."

The radio crackled to life. "Uh, Alpha team here, we took a wrong turn and.. uh.. we found something." Miko gulped.

Perceptor and Raf exchanged glances, and immediately set their workstations to log data automatically. "We're on our way Miko, where are you?" Raf insisted as he grabbed the radio.

"Well I thought we were on the second sub-level, turns out we're on the third. Just head down that and take the North passage." Miko supplied.

"My sensors indicate you are in the South, Miko" Perceptor informed as he and Raf headed down.

"Don't be too hard on her. Theres a bunch of blind corners around here, and the wall patterns don't do my optics any favors in picking them out. I haven't seen walls like this since I fell into an Insecticon hive back on Percious Six. Makes my manifold clench every time I think about it." Huffer grumbled.

"Ugh, just hurry up and get down here, this bot is worse than Kup. At least he's like a cheerful old grandpa... and not just an old grump." Miko groaned.

The bickering continued until Perceptor and Raf entered the chamber That Miko and Huffer had discovered. "Dear god and Primus." Raf stuttered as he realized the apparent horror show. The room was large.. and filed with preserved remains floating in tanks. Remains of native life twisted and mutated into half or entirely mechanical monstrosities. Each one cataloged and labeled in some sick mockery of scientific process.

Perceptor read one of the data pads aloud. "Experiment 29 B. Partial Failure. Although conversion of organic tissue to Cybertronian biology was successful, the organism was quite insane and uncontrollable by any means. Termination of this 'Cyber-Coyote' yielded average results consistent with most Cybertronians after extended torture." Everyone winced, including Perceptor as they realized what Shockwave had done to the poor animal.

Raf shakily looked at the largest two at the end of the chamber... his voice quivered as he read the data pad in front of them aloud. "E-experiment 37A and 37C. Success and partial success, respectively. Upgrading these 'dogs' to a larger more powerful Cybertonian form was successful, having solved the issue with sanity and controllability with these already proven trainable organisms. Unfortunately Experiment 37C was unable to utilize any of the weapons or transform into the alternate mode I had engineered. Further tests reveal it to be due to the sheer primitiveness of the beast's mind. Combining the form with the mind of a more adaptable creature should yield better results."

Raf gulped and looked away as Huffer looked over his shoulder. "Termination results... ugh Primus.. I knew he was a sick fragger... but this is absurd! This whole room is like a display case of his perversions!"

"That is part of Shockwave's idea behind this. While retaining the bodies may be useful for scientific purposes, the only reason for this arrangement is that he expects it to be found. For an individual who claims to follow logic, he is known to do things that make very little logical sense.. such as torture and termination. He arranges these to be found to spread the fear of him and unnerve bots with stronger morality programming." Perceptor droned on, his clenched fists being the only indication of emotion.

"Ugh.. so not only is he a freak, he's a freak that likes to play mind games." Miko stated with disgust. "Raf.. you gonna be okay.. you look a bit pale." She asked, suddenly concerned.

"I'm.. I'm fine.. just reading that made me sick to my stomach." Raf replied.

"There appears to be a code.. embedded in these.. descriptions.. an old one." Perceptor looked at the other data pads. "Its a message.. or rather a challenge. He knows I'm here." Perceptor started moving rapidly back to the entry site. "We cannot afford to waste time. He is already several moves ahead of us and his plan is already in motion. If my theory is correct, we need to locate, isolate, and protect all the targets that had been tagged by the tracking program. Any one of those could be his next test subject. Some may be decoys."

"Then we better get that map decrypted, the sooner we get that, the sooner we can find the people." Raf started as he struggled to keep up.

"Knowing Shockwave, this is a small part of much larger plan." Perceptor dully added. He knew all too well how tangled Shockwave's web of secrets can be.

* * *

Joan grumbled as she scratched the persistent itch on her arm. Lo and behold, those tiny little drops had made her break out. Even more incentive to find out what the stuff is, she thought as she took an antihistamine with her regular pills that night. Her friend had emailed her a list of suggested tests she could try and send him the results. And honestly, she was glad she had some old darkroom equipment stashed away.

Seth had given it to her as a gift, as he apparently didn't understand that the reason it was so cheap to buy the equipment from the old camera store, was because nobody really needed it anymore. Digital cameras had more or less replaced film ones, and most camera stores had thus lost their primary source of income. Which meant it had to be sold off once the shops closed, but few people would be willing to buy the outdated equipment, so it sold cheap.

Which was okay, she could still find other uses for the stuff. Like now. Her friend instructed her to get a tiny bit of wire and twist a loop on the end.. dip it into one of the fluids to get a small drop in the loop. Then put it over an open flame and see what it does. Easy peasy, she reasoned. Just one dip in the blue.. and... FLASH! Joan nearly fell on her ass when the droplet ignited so violently. After a few moments recovery.. and a very satisfying few minutes scratching the rash, she wrote down. "Blue stuff reacts violently to fire."

Once she remade her wire loop.. and put it on a long handle so her knuckles wouldn't get singed again. She tried again with the yellow. This time at least, she was prepared for the bright flash. This time, however, it left an odd metallic crystalline formation on the loop. "Also exploded, left metallic crystals on wire loop." she scribbled down before pouring a small sample of each jar into a glass to be left in the open.. and recapping the jars.. and marking the levels on each glass with a dry erase pen.

Info in hand, Joan sat down at her computer and pulled up her messenger and sent off a message to her long time friend, whom she noted she had never met in person, MadJack1984. "Tested both substances with flame tests. They reacted a little violently." She mused on how they met as she waited for a response. Apparently he frequents DIY science forums from time to time and heckles trolls on the Mythbusters' forums. Which is how they 'met' so to speak. She had more than few question of her own, though her interests were more on the filming end of things. 'MadJack' had been very helpful in puzzling out some of her stranger requests, like how to make glow stick fluid for use in some of her photography experiments.

Her messenger beeped with a response. "Sorry it took so long getting back to you. Typing with one hand since the other had an.. accident in the lab. Can you send me Pics of the stuff and the area you got them from? And make sure that area is ventilated, if it has fumes the ones we're trying to evaporate might build up." Theres a long pause after she replied that the area was ventilated and sent him the pictures. "Thats.. odd. Where did you find this again?"

She frowned and scratched the itch. "Can't tell, its on a friend of mine's land, he doesn't want his ranch shut down for something that isn't bothering his cows." She typed back.

"Smart animals. Look, it sounds like you have some sort of chemical spill out there. Likely someone buried something nasty and the container rusted through and ruptured. Tell your friend to cordon it off with some fence and to call this number. I know a few folks in hazmat who can take care of it with minimal fuss." There was another pause between posts. "On second thought. Pour that stuff back into the jars, send me your address and leave them at your doorstep. I'll have them swing by and dispose of that for you, no questions asked."

Joan grumbled for a minute before posting her address and then asking, "Mind telling me what you think it is?"

"Fuel. Possibly experimental. You're in the Nevada area right? There was a legal battle regarding some standards and practices involving Area 51.. its possible they tried to illegally dispose of some of the fuel by burying it out in the middle of nowhere."

"Ugh. Typical. Okay, I'm going to put the jars out and get some sleep. I'll give Seth the number, but I don't thing he'll go for it." Joan replied.

"Its all I ask. Goodnight!"

"Night!" Joan replied before signing off.

"Primus, when it rains it pours." Wheeljack grumbled as he forward a message to Agent Fowler, trying not to flinch as Ratchet re-attached his hand.

"What was that about?" Ratchet asked as he tested connections.

"An acquaintance of mine ran across some Energon, I sent a message to Fowler to do a cleanup operation. We've never met in person, so its best to keep her out of the 'know' if you get my drift?"

"Hrmph. That almost sounds responsible of you Jack. What aren't you telling me?" Ratchet intoned.

"Thats all there is to it. She's a photographer who has excellent tastes in subject matter, what can I say Ratch?" Wheeljack shrugged and smirked.

"Tastes.. meaning she likes things that explode." Ratchet rolled his optics. "What does she know about you?"

"She thinks I'm a chemist.. which isn't entirely a lie.. and that I like Mythbusters." He grinned.

"You mean the show we banned you from watching because of the experiments you started doing?"

"Err.. yes?" Clang! "Ow! Jeeze Ratch! I haven't watched since It got banned.. honest!"

"I still owe you one for the turkey incident." Ratchet glowered.

"I said I was sorry!"

"Not sorry enough! Now stop fidgeting while I finish this connection!"

"Yes Ratch.."

* * *

Fowler yawned as he pulled up to the tiny little house in the middle of the night. It was simple enough, but Wheeljack expressed that he wanted minimal interference in the young woman's life. And frankly, Fowler figured he could use the drive away from the base and its myriad headaches.

As he approached the door he spotted the jars, just idly sitting there, glowing softly in the night. It was almost too easy. As he picked up the Jars.. he realized the door wasn't closed. With a gentle push the door swung open revealing a massive hole in the back of the house.. and an unconscious man with an axe and a big bruise on his head, laying on the floor in a big puddle of vomit and reeking of booze. "Well.. Slag. I think you just got off easy, buddy."

* * *

Read and review please!


	3. Chapter 3

**Transformers Prime**

_Rise of the Maximals_

_**Disclaimer: **_I do not own transformers or the characters from the show, I only own my OCs and the plot.

* * *

_Chapter 3_

As far as tables go, the one in New Autobot City HQ had to be the largest on Earth. Even then, it still didn't seem large enough for the meeting taking place there. Optimus Prime Sat at the head, flanked by Ironhide and Prowl. Perceptor, Wheeljack, and Ratchet sat next to each other and directly across from Jazz, Arcee and Bumblebee. Bulkhead and hound stood in a corner while Blaster Broadcast the meeting to the bots who couldn't attend due to time or size constraints. The human delegation, sat at their own table on top of the table.

Optimus frowned before setting down the data pad he was reading. "It seems that the time of Decepticon silence is at an end. I have seen reports of inbound Decepticon soldiers heading to both Cybertron and Earth. Furthermore, we have the more immediate concern of Shockwave's latest activity. Raf and Perceptor have managed to decrypt a rudimentary map to triangulate Shockwave's targets. Unfortunately several have already been taken." Optimus nodded to Prowl.

"I've already taken steps to identify the missing targets, and work is still underway. Only one has been positively identified, if only because of a chance encounter with Agent Fowler." Prowl added.

"One Joan Maher, formerly known as James Maxwell." Ratchet read out from his data pad, ignoring his interruption of Prowl's report. "I have her medical file here. It states that she is currently undergoing, and in the latter stages of what we would call a reformat, into a female."

"Ay tho' Humans couldn' get reformatted, Ratch'? What gives in thi' case?" Jazz asked as several optic ridges raised.

"Its not quite the same, and unlike in our culture, such a 'reformat' comes with some negative social stigma. Its also considered sensitive medical information, therefor all discussion about it does not leave this table, understood? I'm telling you now, to head off any incident that might occur if we find her." Ratchet added.

"He wouldn' have to say nothin' if it weren' for some of the glitch heads here still relying on scans to determine gender of humans. Seriousely, its not hard you fraggers. And if you don' know, ask for Primus' sake! Its a hell of a lot less embaressin' for both of ya'll." Ironhide drawled angrily.

Bee grinned. "Did Bluestreak really ask that woman if she was aware she had parts missing?"

"Yes. Now lets return to the topic at hand." Prowl groused. "Joan's estranged from her family unit and has only a few friends. The presence of the human, Edward McGrubber, and the weapon he had with him, indicates a larger problem. Unfortunately, she had managed to knock him unconscious prior to being taken by Shockwave. So he is unable to provide us a witness account of the incident. Probably for the best, though several persons have made it clear that we should 'disappear' him anyways. I would like to remind those listening, that we don't do that sort of thing. I do not care how disgusting a lifeform he is, and yes I have reviewed the evidence provided. As of now his only confirmed crimes are public intoxication, burglary, and attempted murder. He will be released to the county sheriff tomorrow, where he will be escorted to jail to await a trail. Any attempt to actualize some sort of 'revenge' is punishable by brig time at minimum." Prowl gave Wheeljack a long look.

"What? I never said I was gonna do anything. Besides Smokescreen already dropped off all the evidence to lock him away in some dark hole for a long long time." Wheeljack grinned.

"Thats more than I want to know." Prowl replied.

"I've assigned Sunstreaker and Sideswipe a route that would take them through the area nearest where she was taken., they have been fully briefed ahead of time. Powerglide is doing flyovers around the areas where we think the other targets are. Mirage and several human agents are following on the ground." Primed added.

Jack stood. "Me and Miko will handle talking to Joan's friends, and Raf will try and keep it out of the news. We don't want a panic breaking out when they realize several people have disappeared."

"I'm already working with the local Sheriff. We're going to keep this quiet as possible. Current cover story for the town is she's in witness protection until McGrubber goes to trial." Agent Fowler added.

Optimus nodded. "Perceptor, Wheeljack. I want you both pulling that facility apart and finding a way to shut it down. Get Huffer to assist if you need to. Prowl and jazz? I need you to assist the search for the remaining victims. Everyone else be on a alert. Does anyone have anything else to add?"

"Red Alert says the Dinobots will be making planet fall in a week. I hope we're ready for them, Grimlock is still angry with you." Arcee added.

"I'll handle Grimlock. No one else? Then lets roll out!" Prime announced as he stood and bots began filing out of the room.

Jazz paused and looked around the room as Arcee helped Jack down. "Grims' huh? We're gunna need a bigger... buildin'."

* * *

Joan started awake.. something was wrong. All she could see was yellow.. something.. and a bunch of strange symbols scrolling across her vision. Her arms and legs seemed to move wrongly as she tried to orient herself. It was quickly made clear that she was floating in some sort of.. tube? Her body felt wrong... and she realized she wasn't breathing. Every attempt to breather was met with a strange whirring sensation. Panic, she was starting to panic. She kicked at the sides of the tube and tried to scream, but her voice was muffled. Somehow she found purchase with her awkward legs and pressed against the other side of the tube. She felt her body straining in strange and unfamiliar ways before she heard the tube crack. She pushed harder until.. CRASH! The tube shattered and she flowed out of the tube with rest of the fluid.

Stunned she tried to stand only to find that her feet weren't working right. She feel to her.. hands? She looked down in horror as she saw the metallic paws she had instead of hands. More strange symbols flashed across her vision and her body shuddered as her vision flickered repeatedly. Until finnally she saw that she could understand some of the strange scrolling text. ::Reboot: Successful. Systems: Online.:: Spoke a voice she was certain came from inside her own head.

"Alert! Subject has breached containment. Alert!" Came another voice, her head and ears swung around to lock onto an odd floating orb with two thin arms hanging from its sides.

Something inside her made her snarl, something primal, yet familiar. And almost without thinking she leaped upon the machine and clamped down on it with her jaws.. only coming to her full senses when she realized she had ripped the thing apart and silenced it. "Breach THAT." she snarled then shook her head. She knew she was angry, but she never felt it like this before. She looked around for something reflective.. she needed to see herself. Thankfully the broken glass provided a rough idea of what she now looked like.

"Is this some sick kind of joke? Tell me you did not put my brain in a robot wolf!" She demanded out loud.. only to hear silence. She paced the small room.. unsure if she should attempt to leave just yet when the voice returned. ::Beast Mode: Calibration: Complete. Please. Assume. Robot. Mode. For. Further. Calibration.::

"Wait.. what? Robot mode? How do I do I- EEP!" she yelped as her body suddenly reared up. She could feel the parts shift and move as her vision flickered out and returned just int time to reveal her new height. Her first instinct was to looked own at her hands. Where she was greeted by her the large metallic protrusion on her chest. Looking at her reflection once more, she felt overcome with a mixed set of emotions. She wasn't sure which seemed more important.. but somehow, snark seemed to come out on top. "When I said I wanted a boob job.. this isn't exactly how I planned to get one." She paused to give her new form another look. "Upside. I'm not ugly.. weird and metal.. but not ugly. Downside.. I'm weird and metal and strongly think who did this is a perv..." she paused again as she considered the implications of her new form. "I'm so gonna kick his ass." she growled and reached for the door panel.

When the door refused to open, she resorted to hitting it. When it still didn't open she snarled and her arm transformed into a weapon.. causing her to pause as a targeting array popped into her vision. On impulse she pulled what 'felt' like a trigger and was nearly knocked on her back from the sudden recoil. Five shots later and the weapon seemed to have zeroed itself to her targeting array.. and cut a sizable hole in the door.

Cautiously she stepped out, looking up and down the massive hallway. Nothing. No other alarms, no people that she could see in the dim light. Only the fain moaning from another room seemed audible. She took a moment to figure out how to transform her hand back into her hand.. and quickly learned she also had bladed weapon as an option. "Well.. I'm armed... thats a good thing.. right?"

The moaning intensified causing her to turn toward it and summon her gun again as she crept closer. The door was open and the figure inside was horrifically misshapen. His limbs were mismatched.. like someone played mix and match with a human and a variety of metal animals. Large tubes were hooked into the ceiling with thick greens sludge pumping in and out of him. "K-kill mee..." he groaned. "M-make.. it.. s-s-stop."

Joan cringed and backed away.. she couldn't.. buts he couldn't just leave him there either. "I... I can't..."

"Doo it.. pleeease... cu-cut the cables... let me die... in peeace.." He insisted.

Joan looked away.. but she could still see the readouts in her vision.. telling her that he was already dying, and the tubes were only prolonging it. She fired.. once.. and when she heard nothing, she turned to see the cables severed and the twisted amalgamation of metal and flesh laying in a puddle on the floor. She wanted to throw up, she felt the urge rise but she held it down.. she had to get out of there.. so she started running.. she didn't know where she was going.. but she was running anyways. She had to get away from this place filled with horrors. Primitive instinct kicked in and she found herself transformed and running on all fours.. her senses straining to find a way out of the twisting mass of halls and rooms.

For a split second,s he realized she was moving at nearly a hundred miles per hour whens he spotted the red and black bot step out in front of her. Too late to slow down.. her paws and claws scraped against the metal floor in vain as she collided with the big red bot full tilt. "L-look.. CLANG! .. oooooowwt.." she groaned while on her back before slowly rolling over and transforming.

"Nothing here that can harm us you said?" Sideswipe snorted. "Well look at that, I say that just harmed you! Course it looks like he collided with your head.. so you'll be fine." Sunstreaker snorted.

Sideswipe sat up and rubbed his head. "Aww you do care Sunny!"

"I said no such thing, and stop calling me that." Sunstreaker growled. "And you! What the frag are you, and why am I not gonna slag you for denting my brother?"

Joan's eyes went wide as she struggled to sit up. "Whoah hey.. I'm just trying to get out of this freaky place okay!? Were you kidnapped too?"

"Kidnapped?" Sideswiped blinked "Oh! no.. we're trying to rescu-...wait... you wouldn't happen to know a Joan would you.. or where she and the others might be?"

There was a long silence as the trio seemed to take in what the others had said. "Uhm.. Hi.. thats me." Joan finally answered.

The twins looked to each other, then to Joan. "Well frag... we were hoping to find you before..." Sideswipe trailed off.

"Well we didn't and I this is the seventh time down here my paint almost got scuffed. You will take us to where they had you so we can get the others." Sunstreaker snarled.

"About that.. I really wasn't paying attention to where I was going.. and the one guy I saw down here... is.." she grimaced.. "I.. I had... I had to.." she started to sob. "he was begging for me to... he was already dieing... " And suddenly the full weight of what she did hit her and she couldn't stop crying.

"Jeeze Sunny, way to make the femme cry." Sideswipe stated chidingly to his twin as she stood up. "C'mon now, lets get you out of here. We'll deal with searching for the others later." He offered a hand. "You got more than enough slag on your plate as it is."

"O-okay." Joan hiccuped as she took the hand.. somewhat surprised how big she was in comparison to Sideswipe. "..w-why do you have tires on your shoulders?"

"Oh we turn into Cameros in our alt modes." Sideswipe smiled.

"Little Cameros?" She stated, slightly confused.

"No.. full sized ones.. you're friggin' huge for a femme. Like.. Predicon sized." He offered.

"She don't know what a Predicon is, Dumb Aft." Sunstreaker snorted.

"Don't mind Sunny, he's always like that."

"Stop calling me that!"

* * *

Far away, a single red optic watched the exchange though hidden cameras, before turning to a report in the process of being written. ::Experimental subject 47A. Resounding Success. Full retention of cognitive ability, with capability to learn and adapt to new physiology. Physical capability is nominal. Emotional issues can be dealt with with standard reprogramming procedures and torture. Termination results pending.::

"Are you sure it is wise to let them steal her away from you?" The shrill voice of Starscream pierced the otherwise dull hum of computers.

"I will let the Autobots rescue a few of my test subjects, by then I will have perfected the process and have moved on to selecting subjects more suited to our purposes. Predaking may have secured one of my cloning labs, but he lacks the ability to improve upon what I have done. Soon we will have a new army, ready for Megatron's return. Then, we will deal with my rebellions creations AND the Autobots." Shockwave replied.

"And the other project?"

"Operating as expected, and remaining undetected. Soundwave has made certain of it."

"Good. We have much to do, to prepare for Megatron's return."

* * *

Read and review please!

**Deleted scenes:**

"If these jiggle when I walk I'm gonna kill him." She took a few steps.. "Oh fuck it.. I'm going to kill the pervert anyways!" -Joan


	4. Chapter 4

**Transformers Prime**

_Rise of the Maximals_

_**Disclaimer: **_I do not own transformers or the characters from the show, I only own my OCs and the plot.

* * *

_Chapter 4_

"For the Love of Primus, Stand still you slagging.. Sparkling! Before I weld your aft to the berth!" Ratchet bellowed as he struggled to do a a basic check up on his latest patient.

"I can't help it! It tickles!" Joan, the aforementioned patient complained. To her credit, she was trying to remain calm about the whole ordeal. She had only broken down in tears and rage three.. okay four times if she was being honest with herself. And decking Mirage and throwing him across the room didn't count. Call her an _animal_? With _that_ snooty attitude? It was entirely justified! Sunny and Sides, as he came to know them, even agree!

Finally, Ratchet managed get his diagnostic plug into the port in the back of Joan's helm. It had been tucked away at a very inconvenient hunk of armor for who knows what reason, and it made it difficult to insert the plug. "There we go, now lets get a readout on what the frag is going on in there.. It would just be Shockwave's style to leave some sort of sludge-coated nasty surprise behind." ratchet grumbled as text started scrolling by.

"Am I supposed to be seeing a bunch of text scrolling through my vision?" She asked as she struggled to read the rapidly scrolling text.

"Thats normal, what isn't is that you're lacking everything beyond basic driver software and your code base is a tangled mess. Its like he didn't bother writing any code at all! Just slapped on mods and left you to stew. There is a very.. very basic Cybertronian dictionary.. which is the only reason you are even able to understand the readouts at all... but it was simply loaded in there, its a small miracle you are even able to access it!" Ratchet snorted.

"Code base..? You mean I'm not a brain in metal box attached to a robot?" Joan asked.. worry creeping into her face.

"What? No! And before you get any half sparked ideas, you _are_ the real you... I don't know _how_ he did it.. but he somehow converted you into a full fledged Cybertronian. The only good thing out of all this, is that at least I know how to _treat_ the problems that came with your conversion." Ratchet paused and tapped on his data pad. "Your vision is gonna flicker out for a moment, so hang on.. I'm uploading the missing software and some firewalls to go with it. After that I'm looking at your hardware, see if anything need correcting." Ratchet grumbled. "Its like you're an oversized sparkling."

"Whats a- oh.." she paused mid sentence when the reboot hit... then shook her head as her systems started coming back online. "Whoah that was weird.. so.. yeah.. what is a Sparkling? You keep mentioning them."

"To put it in human terms, its a baby... but not always quite the case. Any newly sparked Cybertronian can be considered a sparkling. There are.. techniques... to generate a spark in an adult frame. Those are usually coupled with carefully crafted personality matrixes.. in order to 'simulate' a mature mind that the spark will grow into. It.. doesn't always work very well. Only Vector Sigma had the ability to bring adult Cybertronians online with no personality issues." Ratchet explained as he watched the new software load and unpack for the first time.

"Had? Is he dead?"

"_It_ was a powerful super computer with direct access to the Matrix. Unfortunately it has been lost for quite some time now. It also contained many secrets from the earliest parts of our history, few know what it may have contained. Iacon's historical archives, if they remain intact, could tell you more." Ratchet's finger hovered above the data pad. "I'm going to enable your internal Comm unit. Brace yourself, theres a lot of comm traffic going on right now and its going to ping every signal it detects to get an ID. Happens every time with a new comm unit. After that I'll set the unit to manual, so you aren't pinging random bots all the time."

"Okay.. ack!" Joan cringed as she felt the onrush of data streaming into her head. Her fans whirred to life as she breathed a brief sigh of relief with the onslaught abruptly stopped.. only to clutch her head again as she received what sounded like a resounding "hello!" on all the channels her comm pinged. "Now my head hurts..."

"It'll pass. Now go and set up your preferences and filters. I'm sure you don't want to be hearing all you comm messages simultaneously. I'm going to check your hardware now, so please lay down while I remove some of your armor." Ratchet instructed as he guided Joan down on the berth. "Oh, and put Prime, Prowl and myself on your high priority list. You can reset your ID at any time if you like, but its set to "Joan" already. Name changes with reformats is a Cybertronian custom, but we don't expect you to follow it."

Joan arched a brow as she navigated the odd interface in her vision. "Reformat? Is that what you call this?"

"Yes, anytime a bot gets a complete redesign or rebuild like this, its called a reformat. New body, new name. Some bots choose to ignore the tradition.. for multiple reasons. The Dinobots.. who you _will_ meet.. are a perfect example of this. They and you share a.. similar history in some regards." Ratchet explained tiredly as he carefully unbolted a piece of Joan's armor to get a look inside.

"Why do you want me to meet them?" Joan asked as she glanced down to see Ratchet peering inside the opening with a flashlight and a electrical probe. "Thats.. really disconcerting to see.."

"Most bots look away and try not to think about it. And I want you to meet them because they've been at Shockwave's 'mercy' as well." Ratchet scoffed at the term 'mercy' in regards to Shockwave. "They're some of the few bots who understand what you went through.. and they have centuries of experience in coping with it."

"What Ratch' isn't telling you is that it'll also throw Grimlock for a loop and hopefully make him a bit more.. personable when he meets Prime." Wheeljack interjected as he stepped into the medbay. "Evening Joan, I'm Wheeljack." He smiled. "Ratch' I got the parts you requested."

"Just set them on the table, I'll sort them when I'm done here." Ratchet replied as he poked a few connections. "Very solid connectors, no wonder you didn't knock anything loose when you ran into Sideswipe. I wonder if the Predacons are built like this too..."

"Heh.. That makes you the third 'Jack' I know. I met Agent Jack Darby earlier.. and I have a friend that goes by "Madjack" online." She looked at Ratchet again. "Okay, what exactly are Predacons? Every time I hear about them, Its in comparison to me."

"Predacons used to be an extinct species of ancient Cybertronian. That is, until Shockwave started cloning them... and they went rogue on him." Wheeljack supplied as Ratchet continued his examination. "And.. well they're big.. and powerful.. Miko says they look like Dragons and Griffins. Actually that might explain your.. ah.. design." Wheeljack fidgeted in place.

"That would make a lot of sense." Ratchet added. "If he's trying to perfect a new form of Cybertronian to combat the rogue Predacons. He wouldn't care if the test subjects are willing, so long as if he can get one that meets his standards in ability. He'd likely try and brainwash later test subjects.. willing and unwilling."

Joan cringed at the thought before finalizing the settings on her comm unit. "So he's some psycho robot space Nazi scientist?"

Wheeljack responded as Ratchet started to replace Joan's armor. ". . . That actually.. sums Shockwave up rather well. Just.. don't go calling others 'robots' unless you mean it as an insult. 'Bot' gets kind of a free pass.. cause the.. cultural meaning's a bit different." Wheeljack threw up his hands "Don't ask, I just speak it. But robot and 'sparkless drone' kind of have the same connotation as being called 'soulless' or 'heartless' in your language."

"You can explain more things on your way to Prowl." Ratchet stated as he unplugged his diagnostic tools from Joan. "I'm done here and need to write up a report on my findings. You're as healthy as I can determine, now OUT." Ratchet insisted as he helped Joan to her feet and pushed the two bots out his door.

"So how many times did he have to hit you to sit still?" Wheeljack grinned as he un subspaced a data pad and handed it to Joan.

"He tried.. once.." Joan chuckled. "Turns out the stuff on my head isn't a vanity plating covering some armor. Its armor.. covering armor. I dented his wrench."

Wheeljack snerked. "So its safe to say.. you're hard head-" Clang! "Ow! Hehe.. You pack a punch." Ratchet rubbed the newly formed dent in his arm. "I'll pop this out myself later, save Ratch' some frustration."

Joan grimaced. "Sorry ever since I woke up.. something just set me off like I'm off my meds or something."

"Probably a side effect of the reformat.. you'll get it under control eventually.. even Grimlock's been able to learn how to sit through one of Prowl's lectures without throwing something." Wheeljack shrugged. "Anyways, Jazz asked me to give you that. He came up with a list of things for you to look at and some stuff to download. Read the first file and then subspace it until after the meeting with Prowl."

Joan looked at the data pad. "Subspace and how to use it?"

"Thats the one!" Wheeljack chuckled.

Joan arched a brow and went silent as they walked toward Prowl's office before she finally placed the data pad in her subspace. "Its kinda like a pocket.. I guess."

"Yep! Or a video game inventory system." Wheeljack mused.

"Why didn't Ratchet mention it?"

"Low priority, plus he probably didn't want you picking anything up that you shouldn't keep in there." Wheeljack explained before stopping at Prowl's office and knocking. "Hey, Prowl, Joan's here for your lecture!"

"You mean that list of things that was labeled "Unless you're Wheeljack?" She asked just before the door slid open.

"That's the one! Now try and have fun, I'm going back to the lab." Wheeljack smiled and walked away before Joan stepped into the office.

There were two bots, and one human sitting at the desk.. with an open chair, presumably for her. "Go ah head an' sit. Prowler will be with ya in a minute. I'm Jazz by tha way." Jazz grinned.

"And I'm Agent Fowler. I just have a question before Prowl gets started." he stated as he paced on the desk.

Joan nodded as she took the seat. "Okay?"

"Namely, on the night of your kidnapping, A Mr. McGrubber was seen in your house, bearing an axe, it looks like you subdued him before being taken. Is this the case? And would you like us to pursue legal action on your behalf?"

The memory triggered a deep well of anger t spring up inside her. Yeah, she remembered him forcing the door open, threatening her with the axe. She remembered grabbing.. something.. and hitting him over the head with it... before things went blurry. "Yes, and that man shouldn't be allowed back on the streets.. he was trying to kill me!"

"Got it, and thank you for your time.. I'll come back later when things are more.. settled.. to discuss other matters." Agent Fowler smiled as he headed to the small stairway build into the desk. "I hope things start looking up for you soon."

"You and me both." She glumly replied. "It feels like I've hardly had time to think!"

"At least you can think, though you'll have plenty of time to do that after they get all the necessities out of the way." Fowler replied as he made his way out the door before it slid shut behind him.

"And that is why I'm giving you a briefing now." Prowl replied. "To get these things done as soon as possible so that you have more uninterrupted time to 'adjust' to your new status."

When Joan nodded, Prowl launched immediately into a detailed explanation of base rules and regulations. A long and boring explanation, that made her want to craw out of her chair and slink away to hide from it.

::At least it ain't the 'birds and the bees' right?:: A message, labeled 'Jazz' popped over her comm system. ::Use encryption code 347X-beta to respond.::

Joan tried to keep her expression neutral as she entered the code in her comm unit. ::Hello?::

::There ya go, femme! Yer a fast learner!:: Jazz replied. ::Don' worry about tha' lecture, all new bots tha' arrive here have ta hear it even if they 'eard it before, but its mostly common sense stuff regardin' what not ta do around humans and basic 'don' cause trouble' stuff. There's a bit of ah game going around abou' causin' trouble though.::

::Is that why you had me subspace the pad before the lecture?:: She asked.

::Ayep! Ah figure' Ah best give ya the tools an lay o' the land before somebot tries an tell ya different as ah prank.:: Jazz smiled, just out of Prowl's sight. ::Good job smackin' Mirage, by tha way. How'd yah know where his face was at to punch? Tha cloak of his is pretty solid.::

::Something weird with my hearing now... I can triangulate sounds apparently... so I just punched where I thought his voice was coming from.:: She tried not to smile and had to cover her mouth to hide it.

::Huh, I'm goin' to have ta see about duplicatin' tha' Mah audios are sensitive enough, but ah don' think ah can target like tha' withou' software. Ah think mos' 'umans can do it natively too.. somethin' about tha' shape of tha' audios tha' species on this planet has. Bot's don' do it well 'cause we rely on other systems too much:: Jazz rambled.

::That would explain his surprise. He totally deserved it though.:: Joan re-affirmed.. taking a moment to nod to one of Prowl's questions.

::He's a snooty ex-aristocrat. T'was nice ta see him taken down a peg.:: Jazz grinned.

"And that conclude the Briefing.." Prowl stated. "Any questions?"

"Nope!" Joan hopped up, eager to escape.

"Ahm gonna take her ta get some fuel, an maybe some paint. Primer gray, jus' ain't your color, femme." Jazz offered.

"Very well. Jazz, try and keep both you and her out of trouble. Also, Joan, you have a meeting with Prime tomorrow. It would have been sooner, but a large number of base personnel are currently combing the Darkmount 'catacombs' for the the other abductees. Prime is among the searchers." prowl noted before pressing a button his desk to open the door.

Jazz took that as an invitation to hop over Prowls desk, much to Prowl's annoyance and grab Joan by the hand. "Sure thing Prowler!"

Prowl grumbled and sighed as they left. He just knew trouble was coming.

* * *

Hound frowned as he knelt down at one of the open chambers.. the sickly green fluid seem to be everywhere.. but there was no sign of the victim that should have been there, save fro a few foot prints leading off into the dark. "So much for being dead. Looks like it picked itself up and wandered off on its own, Nightbeat."

"Found the room Joan was held in. And the remains of a drone she shredded." He looked around at the dimly pulsing tubes of Synth-En lining the ceiling. "I don't buy that this is just a lab. Way too much Energon. But its not really a stockpile either. We know its producing it, but from the rate of flow.. either this building is expanding really fast.. or its all being stored somewhere for something else."

"Who knows what Shockwave is up to? Perhaps it needs to be this big to be the incubation chamber for his new army?" Hound supplied as the headed down the corridor.

"Maybe. Or maybe its also to keep us busy and confused while he attempts something else?" Nightbeat asked. "Like you said, who knows wha-" He stopped as he heard a horrific wailing coming from the dark.

"I got a bad feeling about this..." Hound mumbled as he shone is light on a massive claw mark on the walls.

"I have a worse one." Nightbeat added as he pointed to the floor.

Scrawled in putrid green ichor were the words. "I am Abominous.. and I live.. to DESTROY!"

* * *

Read and review please!

**Deleted lines:**

"So the Autobots are taking in stray animals now?" -Mirage, before he got punched.


	5. Chapter 5

**Transformers Prime**

_Rise of the Maximals_

_**Disclaimer: **_I do not own transformers or the characters from the show, I only own my OCs and the plot.

* * *

_Chapter 5_

Miko frowned as she and Bulkhead popped open yet another empty chamber. Well, empty wouldn't be the right word for them. They were full of stuff, but no missing people. "At least with the apex armor we can pop the doors faster." She muttered over the radio.

"And thats a good thing, it means you can cover more ground than the bots who have to cut the doors open." Jack replied from his position with Raf back at the 'hub' as they had started to call it.

"Any word from the other search parties?" Bulkhead asked.

"Hound and Nightbeat says they might have found the one Joan reported... sort of." Jack noted.

"Define 'sort of,' Jack. Either you find something or you don't... wait.. Nightbeat?" Bulkhead huffed a sigh as Miko wrenched another door off. "What did he say?"

"Evidence that he may still be alive... and possibly insane and dangerous. They've seen signs of his passing, and even a crude message. But beyond a few noises, they haven't been able to locate him.. _"Abominus"_ may be lost in these tunnels." Jack added after a moment's pause. "They're tracking to confirm his status. If its too much a risk to subdue and bring him in for some manner of treatment, we'll be enabling Minotaur Doctrine to keep him contained until we can devise a treatment."

"Dude's already screwed up pretty bad if he's calling himself that" Miko noted. "And what the frag is Minotaur Doctrine? And why wasn't I briefed when it was named?" She grunted as she wedged her fingers around another door.

"Prime and Fowler just finished drafting it up." Raf supplied, his constant keystrokes audible over the radio. "It seemed appropriate. Doctrine states we plant sensors to track his movements and seal off or disguise all exits. We do not engage him at all costs. He will be like Minos, trapped in the maze."

"Fowler and Prime realized that Shockwave might have some.. hostile creations lurking around down here, which is why they drafted the doctrine." Jack added.

"Harsh. But I'm not seeing a better alternative." Bulkhead noted.

"Perceptor's a little tied up, but he wanted me to pass along that you need to keep an optic open for anything referencing "_The Key of Vector Sigma_" in your search. That phrase has been popping up as a reference in a large number of these programs." Raf interjected.

"Huh.. sounds.. familiar." Bulkhead frowned, unable to place where he heard it before. "We'll keep an optic open."

"Oh hey! I found something!" Miko announced as she pulled open the door to a lit room.

"Congrats!" Screeched a voice from the other side of the doorway. "Now can you over sized excuse for a Space Marine unpin me from the _fucking_ wall?!"

"And he's really rude!" Miko huffed before squeezing into the tight doorway to get a better look at the subject in question.

Inside, on the far side of the chamber was a bot, who appeared to have an avian alt mode. He was held against the wall with a series of clamps.. with an.. as yet unused set of 'medical' instruments laying on a tray not to far away. "Oh fucking god.. I should of known the Japanese would be involved with something involving robots." He lamented as he saw Miko's face.

Miko stared at him before turning around and stomping out. "Nope.. not worth it. Bulk if you wanna do it, be my guest, but if I do I might just punch him."

"Hey!" The pinned one protested just before Bulkhead stepped inside.

"Jeeze buddy, thats not a good way to make friends with Miko. Also.. this has nothing to do with Japan." Bulkhead explained as he started to undo the clamps. "What is your name, anyways?"

"Conrad.." he muttered. "My mouth runs ahead of my brain sometimes okay? So what is this, an escape? You can't be working with the little orb bots.. cause they could open the doors normally... you a brain transplant too?"

"I'm Bulkhead, and no.. I'm an 'alien' as you humans tend to put it. Cybertronian to be precise.. which.. unfortunately is what you are now.. just a different.. ah... well.. lets leave it to the science guys to figure out how you're different from the rest of us." Bulkhead grunted as he ripped one of the clamps off. "Also, this is a rescue op. The US detected something unusual and when our joint team investigated.. we found this place."

"I'm guessing the name's descriptive of you... sorry." Conrad grumbled. "So what is this place then?"

"We're thinking of calling it The Underbase. We're still puzzling out what all is going on here, besides the experimentation. Agent Miko wanted to call it "Shockwave's Shop of Horrors," but that was shot down right away." Bulkhead supplied as he started working on the last clamp.

"Shockwave? What is with your names? Is it a translation thing.. where English just doesn't translate right?" Conrad asked as he braced himself against Bulkhead's shoulder as he worked on the last clamp.

"Sort of? Some bot's change their names to a more 'English compatible' one simply because it sounds better. Like, Bumblebee. He went for the name change because he's black and yellow.. and well.. you've heard that saying.. 'sting like a bee'? It kinda fit him better than his old one. Then you got bots who have names that aren't like that at all. Like Optimus Prime, and Arcee." Bulkhead stated before he gave one final pull and ripped the last clamp free. "Better?"

Conrad hopped down and flexed his joints. "I never thought metal could ache before.. but yeah.. better."

"Cybermatter has more in common with organic tissue than plain metal... but.. you would have to ask Ratchet or Perceptor about that." Bulkhead paused. "Might want to bring someone who can understand Perceptor before you ask him. He talks like a thesaurus."

"Right.. so where too now? I really kinda want to go home.. but I get the feeling thats not gonna work out so well." Conrad lamented

"Well, I figure you should come with us while we finish our sweep and we'll take you to base where the doc can get a good look at you.. make sure you're in good working order.. and theres not like a bomb or something inside you."

Conrad's optics went wide. "Uhm.. shouldn't we be hurrying to someone to get that checked out.. or rather shouldn't _I_ be?"

"Well, its not very likely for one.. and for two we don't want you wandering alone.. its easy to get lost down here.. and who knows what else might be roaming down here? Which would you rather happen? Chance running into something by yourself, or with a couple of Autobot warriors?" Bulkhead grinned. "Besides, we're almost done."

Conrad grimaced. "Fuck... I think I'll stick with you and the chick who has the supped up power armor." He paused. "That is power armor right?"

Bulkhead chuckled as he guided Conrad out of the room. "It is. Its called the Apex armor. Its a one of a kind Cybertronian artifact. She's also one of the very few who are allowed to use it."

"Why is that? Is it hard to control?" Conrad asked as Bulkhead led him around. "Or is it a trust thing?"

"More of a trust thing. Our home world got torn apart by civil war, and we're only now recovering. We don't want to give your government our weapons tech for fear that you would use it like we did. Primus knows there was already a group that tried with stolen Decepticon tech. Decpeticons being a faction of warmongering psychopaths and amoral mad scientists... like the one who did that to you."

"...Fair enough" Conrad agreed. "There are more than a few humans I wouldn't trust holding a dull spoon, let alone a ray gun."

"You seem to be handling this well." Bulkhead noted as he shone a light into one of the doors Miko opened.

Conrad made a face. "I think I spent most of my 'freaking out' pinned to that goddamned wall." He paused. "You think you can reverse this?"

"As far as we know? We can't. We haven't even figured out 'how' Shockwave did it... it shouldn't be possible." Bulkhead grumbled.

"To quote a dead philosopher. All things are possible, given time. Or something like that... Granted, you might find a way to fix me a hundred million years from now.. and by then I'll probably be dead or beyond caring. And psychowave, or whatever his name is, probably isn't going to help reverse it."

"Not likely.." Bulkhead nodded. "But I wouldn't give up hope."

"In the meantime.. at least I can fly.. theoretically." Conrad winced. "Kinda hard to when the room is so small."

* * *

Later, at Autobot HQ, Ratchet rubbed his faceplate as he studied the screens before him. Seven new bots with very similar internal designs, including Joan, and excluding the one that he only had pictures of from hound. Wheeljack and Prowl looked over his shoulders to see what had the medic so perplexed. "Seven test subjects, excluding Abominus." Ratchet mumbled.

"Thusfar. We've only managed to search a fraction of The Underbase." Prowl noted aloud.

"Even the fliers are overbuilt." Wheeljack added.

Ratchet pointed to the braincase on each. "Look at these processor designs. No Autobot or Decepticon is built like this. Three separate cores. One is tied to automatic functions mostly, while the others are linked to the higher reasoning centers."

"Think its because they were human? Their brains are set up like that, naturally even." Wheeljack asked.

"It would make sense. This would grant them faster reaction times with the automatic functions, while not burdening the higher reasoning CPUs by taking up processing space with trivial matters." Prowl noted.

"Hmm agreed, I've seen it in all of them." Ratchet nodded. "The other two CPUs have very different architectures. Normally that would cause an issue in one of us.. but the way they're linked.."

"Just like a human brain. I'm telling you Ratch,' Shockwave noticed how humans are good at lateral thinking. Thats why he didn't do any modification beyond the plug grafts for the weapons and sub systems. He had to, especially after what M.E.C.H did with Silas." Wheeljack insisted.

"It would make sense if he's looking to make a weapon he can turn against the Predacons. Predacon processors, though powerful, are far more.. primitive than our own. These new bots need to be able to outsmart them." Prowl added.

Ratchet nodded and switched the display to show the alt modes. "These 'beast modes' have a lot a variety to them. Two avian designs of different variation. Two very different felines, one rat, a canine and a.. vulpine."

Prowl looked at the last one. "You certain that is not another canine? They have some similarities."

"Fairly certain, though it hardly matters." Ratchet waved it off. "Joan is built for speed and endurance... she's also stronger and slightly larger. Robin is built for agility and some speed... he's a bit quieter as well. That is all I can see between them."

"Conrad and Evaline are similar in that respect. Conrad's built for speed and maneuverability, good for harassing an enemy. Eva's the big endurance flier, slow but strong. Sort of like a fighter and bomber combination." Prowl observed.

"We got Mack, who's got a tiger like frame. He's mostly raw power from nose to tail. Debbie's got the Cheetah frame as well, nothing but speed, speed, and more speed. But only for short bursts.. not a constant thing like with Blurr. Both have decent agility." Wheeljack pointed out.

"Which leaves.. Jim. The rat." Ratchet sighed. "The smallest of the seven, not to mention quietest. He's weaker and slower than the other six. The upshot is that he retains a high degree of dexterity in his beast mode, and has the curious ability to chew through slagging near everything with those teeth. His frame is also more.. flexible. Apparently he squeezed through a hole barely the size of his beast mode's head."

"Scared the living spark out of Sunny, I heard." Wheeljack smirked.

"His abilities fill a gap not covered by the other forms." Prowl noted. "He would an extremely effective saboteur or infiltrator."

"You thinking they're designed to compliment each other?" Wheeljack arched a brow at Prowl.

"Its fairly apparent when laid out like this. You already have a scout, air support, a saboteur and a strike team. There are possibly a few other roles that could be filled later... but this alone is enough for most combat operations." Prowl explained.

"IF they wanted to be one. Don't get any funny ideas, Prowl. Even if they want to be, they would need extensive training." Ratchet warned.

"Regardless, I'm still assigning Jazz to Jim. He shows certain.. personality quirks that Jazz is better equipped to deal with." Prowl responded, undaunted.

"Quirks meaning he's got the mannerisms of a street thief?" Wheeljack asked.

"Precisely." Prowl paused. "When do you plan to inform Joan that you were the one who sent Agent Fowler to her door and ultimately got her rescued?"

Wheeljack frowned. "Maybe later.. _after_ things have calmed down."

"Don't take too long, 'jack. These things tend to not end well if you let it sit for to long." Ratchet cautioned. "And you best do it before someone else does."

"Yeah, Ratch.' I know." Wheeljack sighed.

* * *

Joan marveled at her new color scheme. She had toyed with quite a few ideas before she settled upon the current one. In the end it was a tossup between emerald green and brown with yellow highlights, or gunmetal gray and black with frost blue highlights. She went with the gray and black, keeping her face a nice silver color. Getting painted was an interesting sensation to say the least. The amount of work and detail that went into it alone was fascinating. Trying not to squirm when paint 'tickled' an area, however, was difficult.

Now, of course, she was in her recently assigned quarters, carefully sorting through the belongings rescued from her house. To her irritation she had damaged a few inadvertently, and her cameras were now way to small for her to use. Thankfully June Darby had decided to help out later that evening.

"It feels like I'm playing a doll set." Joan forced a chuckle.

"A very expensive one at that." June supplied. "Its mostly all camera equipment though. Aside from your fancy computer, you weren't exactly living large."

"Not like I ever wanted a lot of fancy stuff. Plus most of my money was going elsewhere anyways." Joan frowned. "I'm going to have to rethink my career now.. I can't use any of my equipment anymore."

"Maybe, maybe not.. ever think about asking Wheeljack if he can help you rig something up or something?" June suggested as she pulled out another box filled with clothes and set it aside. "They just really grabbed everything they could out of that house."

"I don't really want to impose... I hate asking for things..." Joan winced. "And thats.. partially my fault.. I didn't exactly.. specify what all I wanted."

"Better to have it all and sort through it.. than miss something and regret it I guess." Jone nodded. "Considering what you've been through, I think you've earned the right to impose a bit. I'm sure if you ask to help out a little, they wouldn't even think twice about it."

"I.. Guess." Joan frowned as she finally found her computer's mouse and keyboard. "Maybe a new mouse, keyboard and monitor while I'm at it.. I need to let my friends know I'm okay... relatively speaking."

"Oh, lets just hook this up and I can type it out for you... at least we can get that out of the way." June insisted as she started hunting for the cables. "So, you going for a name change or are you sticking to Joan?"

"Ugh... I don't even _know_." Joan groaned. "And don't even get me started on Debbi 'Swiftpaw' or whatever variation she changes it to every five minutes."

Mrs. Darby could only chuckle in response.

* * *

Read and review please!

**Deleted lines and outtakes:**

"What are you? My mother?" -_Wheeljack to Ratchet, on the subject of Joan_

Robin walks into the HQ with green and brown colors and a bow with arrows at his side. "Look, it was either this or the red, yellow and green number with questionable sexuality." -_It didn't happen, and I refuse to believe it did. -Prowl_

"Now all you need are some mannequins and you can have dolls to go the rest of your doll set." -_June, struck from the record due to the excessive glitching it caused Prowl._


	6. Chapter 6

**Transformers Prime**

_Rise of the Maximals_

_**Disclaimer: **_I do not own transformers or the characters from the show, I only own my OCs and the plot.

_Sorry its been so long.. its been a week..._

* * *

_Chapter 6_

Megatron emerged from the space bridge into a darkly lit room, his armor still crackling from his extended stay in the cold depths of space. A small handful of his army was there, bowing to him out fo respect or fear. Starscream, Shockwave, and Soundwave were at the front of the group. "Report!" He demanded.

Starscream was the first to speak. "It is a pleasure to see you return, Lord Megatron. Our scattered forces continue to gather and return to Cybertron. We have even located the Insecticon hive you tasked us with finding to bolster our numbers. Unfortunately, the Autobots continue increase their numbers as well. And even the Predacons are increasing in number."

Megatron glowered at Starscream for a moment before looking to Shockwave. "And how goes the project?"

"The basement of Darkmount has been uncovered, as expected. However, the plan continues regardless of Autobot meddling. Indications are that my latest creations are perfectly stable, and extremely formidable. Converting willing test subjects will begin as soon as you give the order to gather them. I have also contrived an experimental.. Monstrosity.. to further occupy the Autobots. With Starscream's help, I was able to create a convincing deception about its nature. The true purpose of the 'Underbase,' as they have taken to calling it, remains undiscovered."

"Very good. Everything is unfolding as planned." Megatron smiled. "Shockwave, you have my permission to being the next phase of the project. Starscream. Soundwave. You will accompany me to the hive. If this is the one I think it is then I have _very_ special plans in store for them." Megatron grinned as he waded through the gathered Decepticons.

Starscream hurried after Megatron. "Pardon, my asking master, but what.. do you have planned for the Insecticons?"

Megatron laughed, grinning even wider at Starscream's surprise. "It's simple, Starscream. Its a concept even you are familiar with. They're going to _defect. _Surely, even you can fathom why?"

Starscream slowed as realization crept into his processor. "oh.. OH! Very clever indeed, master! They'll never see it coming!"

::line::

Joan hesitated for a moment as she neared Prime's office. Evidently, he finally had time to see her.. personally. Ultra Magnus was currently taking command of the continued search of the Underbase, so he could see to other things that required his attention. The whole idea made her squirm. Everything she heard about him from the Autobots and humans who worked the base painted him as something between the President of the Autobots, their commander, and their Pope. And here she was.. someone, who was a borderline nobody, meeting him in person. She took a deep breath, cycling her fans before she knocked on the door.. "You.. wanted to see me.. err... Prime.. sir? Its Joan."

"Come on in, and have a seat." Came the voice. To her he sounded tired, weary even.. though she surmised that he's probably been constantly busy as of late. Stepping inside she found herself in awe at him.. before remembering his instruction to have a seat. There was.. just something about him that seemed so much different than the others. Important, even.

He looked up from the datapad clutched in his hands for a moment and managed a smile. "You have been through quite a lot, however, you seem to be adapting fairly well. We were concerned you might react to to your situation in a more.. extreme way."

Joan frowned. More extreme? Did he mean suicide? Yeah it sucked.. and still sucks in some ways, but would someone really throw in the towel over this? She wondered and thens hook her head. "Can't fix it on my own.. I didn't do anything wrong.. only guy who needs to be punished for this is Shockwave... well thats how I see it."

Optimus nodded. "I can understand the sentiment. The question remains, however. What do you want to do now? You are still a US citizen. If you so wish, you can be relocated away from this place.. though your options may be limited that way. But I can understand if you want nothing more to do with us."

Joan shook her head. "No... I can't blame you for the actions of one sicko bot... Actually.. I kinda want to help out a little. You're rebuilding, right? Maybe I can lend a hand.. or.. paw?

Optimus smiled. "Your assistance would be greatly appreciated. You may also want to consider combat training with Prowl, and potentially the Dinobots when they make planet fall. Prowl has expressed interest in putting you and the others in a team together, if they want to be. Decepticons are not known for their tolerance of neutrals, sadly... and the Predacons tend to only understand contests of strength to assert dominance."

"I'll keep that in mind. Might help work out some of the.. frustration I'm feeling." Joan nodded.

"Understandable... there is one other thing, before I send you on your way." Optimus handed her a datapad. "Theres been some suggestions, on just what to call your 'group.' If you will... Jazz would very much like it if you picked the ones you like best and pass this along to the others."

Joan blinked and looked over the list before chuckling. "Okay, I can do that.. thank you.. Err.."

"Just call me Optimus, or Prime, if you prefer." Optimus grinned, and Joan could almost swear she saw a twinkle in his optics.

"Erm. Thank you Optimus." She smiled and headed outside.

* * *

Despite Perceptor and Raf's efforts to seize control of the Underbase computers. Both of them were on the verge of admitting defeat. It was bad enough that the system was decentralized. But Raf could almost swear it was actively thwarting them, sending them running in circles. And over the last few hours, the activity had skyrocketed beyond their ability to track even a fraction of what it was doing. "Arg!" Raf finally exclaimed. "The whole system is playing a giant digital shell game with us, and I'm half convinced its cheating!"

"As distinctly remote as such a possibility should be, I am forced to concede that it could be the case." Perceptor lamented.

"Isn't that the point of the shell game though?" Jack asked. "The movement of the shells is there to distract you... and more often than not, the pea is actually in the magician's hands?"

Raf and Perceptor turned to Jack in unison, then to each other. "I suppose, its possible to hide the actual files in a cluster, and fake command calls to other clusters. There would have to be a program that listens for the fake calls and makes the connections."

"Such a program could listen passively, to further avoid detection." Perceptor agreed.

"But even passive programs use up computing power. To find it, we need to make it more.. active. If we generate enough function calls to the program we're looking for..." Raf trailed off as he began typing furiously.

"We can isolate the program and use it to point us in the direction of the others." Perceptor added as he did likewise. "14 Million calls should suffice."

"Screw that, 14 trillion. If we DDoS the system, it may crash a few of the out lying clusters and slow things down." Raf insisted.

".. Indeed. Shutting the whole system down that way may purchase us additional time... Hmm.. Network activity is already fluctuating." Perceptor noted as they tried to strain the system to its limits.

"Something I've noticed with Cybertronian computer systems, most of them aren't designed to handle network intrusion from the inside. In fact, most of them only handle it from the outside by being isolated." Raf noted aloud as he searched for the program that was reading each of the function calls.

"Few Cybertronians have the skill to intrude on networks. In addition, we did not have a period where the personal computer was linked in a network quite like your internet." Perceptor paused as some of the monitor screens around him flickered. "I have located the program... however.." Perceptor blinked as the lights suddenly went out, save for their own computers. "We have also crashed the system."

Light began to flicker back on. "That was fast.." Raf turned to look at the network map. "What the? The nodes just doubled in number!"

"Fascinating.. it also appears we've been locked out. Fortunately, we have a physical location for the primary server cluster. We simply need to reach it." Perceptor noted as he stood.

"I'm coming with." Raf insisted, folding up his Laptop and unplugging it from the system. "Who knows what it may be like down there."

"Hold that thought Raf. Let me tag someone to take over our position while we go spelunking.. we can't exactly abandon this post." Jack insisted as he tuned in the radio. "This is Agent Darby, if anyone is near finished with their route, we need you to take over watch at the hub."

"This is Ironhide. Me an' Kup are already on our way back, we'll take over from there. Where ya'll off to?" Ironhide crackled over the radio.

"If we're right, we located the primary server... hopefully we can shut this thing down from there." Jack responded.

"Good luck!" Ironhide chuckled as he stepped into view.

Jack waved and grabbed an M4 off the rack that was supplied for human agents picking around down there. Granted he wasn't bring it for the gun itself, but for the grenade launcher attached to it, as well as a few "Wheeljack Specials" that the inventor more than happily supplied for the weapon. "Just in case." He stated to Perceptor when he raised a brow at him. Perceptor knew those weapons, when thrown, were designed to knock out a Cybertronian and fry every computer in the room. They were an acceptable compromise on the usual 'no Cybertronian weapons' rule.

Perceptor didn't waste any time arguing, instead opting to transform to let the two humans get on board. Soon he was quickly making his way deeper into the labyrinthine complex. "Interesting, the more I see, the more.. organic.. the structure seems."

"Maybe its part of the construction.. it does seem to grow a lot like a plant" Raf guessed.

"That could be true." Perceptor agreed. "Shockwave has been increasingly interested in duplicating or improving upon designs he's seen on organic worlds. It may be related to his studies on the Insecticons and Predacons."

"It is a bit of a mystery... the Predacons are so much stronger than Autobots and Decepticons, and Predaking seems just as intelligent as the average bot." Jack noted as he watched the weird winding tubes that lined the walls pass by. "Why would Cybertronians evolve into weaker forms with more. Mechanical designs?"

"Perhaps, the secret lies in the darker chapters of our history. There are gaps in the recorded history. Lost to the ages." Perceptor noted as he made a tight turn.

"Lost, or stricken from the record?" Jack asked.

"... Potentially both." Perceptor replied before screeching to a halt as they ended up in a _massive_ chamber. In the center hovered an object.. surrounded by monitors and cables. The object seemed to flicker.. and parts of it seemed.. fragmented. Jack and Raf quickly got out of Perceptor before he transformed. "Amazing..." He blurted as he transformed and approached the object. "I thought.. they were all lost or destroyed."

"What is it?" Raf asked as he peered at the various monitors.

"This... is one of the fabled Keys of Vector Sigma. Or at least, a.. reconstruction of one. It is also possible that Shockwave had attempted to duplicate one in the past. The Decepticon faction did briefly posses one as well. Its.. fragmented nature indicates that its incomplete or imperfect." Perceptor rambled as he carefully worked is way through the mass of cables to get a closer look.

"You are correct, as usual Perceptor." Came the familiar voice of Shockwave as a hologram sparked to life and the entrance slammed shut behind the trio. "I have been carefully experimenting with an existing key, that was destroyed in the Autobot's attempt to reclaim it. Since then I have been working to extract its secrets from the broken fragments. And I have learned much over the centuries. Unfortunately it was so damaged, great gaps in knowledge remained unfilled. Until now. When I discovered the properties Synthetic Energon had on Cybermatter, naturally I sought to duplicate the same experiment that resulted in the rebuilt Omega Lock. It was then, after Bumblebee fell into the active lock and was restored, I learned it could do so much more than cyberform a planet." The hologram spoke as it strode around the room.

"I used it to restore much of the shattered key. After testing the key in a lower state of restoration, I uncovered the curious properties it had when converting organic life. The more I restored it, the better the effect, and with some careful manipulation.. I was even able to control the end result. It is unfortunate that I am unable to fully restore the key, and as such I cannot use it to create new life. However, that doesn't mean I cannot modify existing life." The hologram flickered as the monitors began to light up. "Which brings me to why I've lured you here. In part, I wanted you to behold my glorious achievement, but I also wanted to put you somewhere where you cannot interfere with the final stage of this project."

"So.. you're going to convert humans into Cybertronians... is that your plan? Cause, maybe I'm missing something, but I'm seeing a big flaw in where this is a 'good' idea." Jack retorted.

"The further advancement of the Cybertronian species as a whole is a logical end result I have always worked towards. However, I am not seeking to build an army out of humans." Shockwave replied. "You would be too concerned with your own issues to pose an immediate threat to my operations."

"You're after Unicron." Raf accused. "This massive network, the mining and growth? You want to seize control of Unicron's body!"

"You are extremely astute for a primitive creature." Shockwave sneered. "Even sealed away within the planet, Unicron's body posses incredible power, comparable to even that of Cybertron. Under my direction, it would be a simple matter to turn your species either into an army under my direction, or grind you to dust and build a new one from scratch." Shockwave proclaimed as massive interlocking pillars rose around the key, shielding it from the trio a the room hummed to life.

"You forgot one detail, of insurmountable importance, Shockwave." Perceptor spoke as he looked to Jack. "We work with Wheeljack." Perceptor, actually smiled as Jack hurled all three of the "Wheeljack specials" Into the center of the room. Just as Perceptor powered himself down to ride out the resultant energy pulse. He barely had tome to see Jack and Raf get down behind one of the monitors before his mind was briefly filled with darkness.

* * *

When Perceptor came to, his systems slowly, and painfully rebooted one by one, the penalty of a hard shutdown. His first thoughts, went to the humans who were with him. Unfortunately the light was too dim to be of any use at the moment. "Raf. Jack. Are you functional?" Perceptor heard the rumbling and scraping of metal.

"Thats... an interesting choice of words." Jack groaned and sat up. Perceptor noticed that he was suddenly far larger than he was. "I'm guessing we got a bit of.. backlash."

"My head.." Raf groaned.

Perceptor finally manged to get enough of his systems back online to trigger his alt mode's lights, confirming his suspicions. "Indeed, you have both been reformatted."

"But.. did we stop him?" Jack asked as he rubbed his helm.

Perceptor glanced around and prodded a nearby terminal, which only reported a multitude of errors. "It would seem so."

"We need to get back up top, and see what happened." Jack groaned and suddenly shifted into his beast form. "Ugh.. whoah... wasn't expecting that.." He growled. "And I'm Canine.. joy."

Raf sighed and rolled over.. switching back and forth as he tried to get a handle on his new body. "Ugh.. might havea got a little scrambled form being at ground zero.. I'm a bat.. of some sort I think."

There was a pounding at the door and then a sudden ripping and tearing as Miko's unmistakable suit of armor squeezed inside. Sadly the face was less so. "Guys! What the hell happened!? One moment everything is fine and spooky and next thing I know me and all the other humans on site are bots! I asked Ironhide and Grandpa-bot where you were and now I'm here and..." She paused to process what she saw. "Ohhhh... you got hit too!"

Raf rolled his optics as the trio trudged toward Miko. "Let me guess.. you got turned into a squirrel? You are way.. too chipper."

"Pfft no! I'm a cat!" She grinned and points to the helm as the lumbering form of Bulkhead caught up with her.

"Jeeze... Miko.. could you slow down? I'm not that-.. Oh.. uh oh." Bulkhead blinked. "We.. ah.. better get on top... like.. right now."

* * *

Elsewhere, a multitude of eyes and optics watched a news report.. as helicopter footage showed the strange technological jungle that sprung up for several miles.. engulfing several small towns and their people. It was hard to believe what had just happened. The room was silent, save for one comment. "So much.. for being secret."

* * *

Read and review please!

**Deleted lines and outtakes:**

"Why, I got the idea from you! Starscream. Even you can be a source of.. _inspiration._" -_Megatron to Starscream._


	7. Chapter 7

**Transformers Prime**

_Rise of the Maximals_

_**Disclaimer: **_I do not own transformers or the characters from the show, I only own my OCs and the plot.

_apologies for the short chapter_

* * *

_Chapter 7_

Predaking glowered at the three Insecticons that stood before him. They had arrived ahead of the swarm, and look vastly different from the majority of the 'hive.' Moreover, they had suggested something he was not expecting of the usually dogmatic Insecticons. "And why, should I believe you three? Every Instecticon I have ever known, was unflinchingly loyal to Megatron, or controlled by Airacnid." He snarled.

Kickback laughed. "Of course you did, they are all clones! Bred for loyalty, easy to control!"

"But we are the original, insecticons, -cons. We cannot be controlled by the likes of Megatron, or Airachnid-nid." Added Shrapnel.

"More-over, you need our expertise in cloning. Shockwave's techniques are good, but he copied them from us." Bombshell noted. "We have never been truly Decepticons, their methods and power simply suited us best at the time."

"We were never afforded the respect we deserved! Treated like simple minded beasts more often than not, for our _primitive_ forms!" Kickback angrily supplied.

That statement brought a growl to Predaking's lips. He knew all to well what it was like to be treated like a primitive beast. And upon thinking upon it, he did indeed notice how the Insecticons were treated. More like loyal _dogs_ than sentient beings. "Very well, you may have your.. chance.. to prove yourselves and become a part of my growing empire." He paused as he stood from his throne. "However, mere words will not secure the respect you desire, you must prove your strength to me, and to the others!" He bellowed as three of his warriors stood, stepping onto the floor. "Warriors! Let us test their metal!"

The room was filled with a deafening roar as the the three warriors leaped upon the Insecticon trio. Shrapnel was the first to react, catching the one aiming for him by complete surprise when he unleashed a massive bolt of electricity that surged through the unwitting Predacon's frame. Kickback was the very next, deftly dodging the charging Predacon before delivering a swift kick that sent him flying into Shrapnel's victim. Bombshell, however, employed a Cerebro-shell and quickly re-directed his attacker toward the the other two. Much to the glee of Shrapnel, who proceeded to light all three of the Predacons up a once!

Predaking smiled, pleased by the swift and brutal take down of three of his warriors. "I believe I have plenty of use for you..."

* * *

Optics and eyes watched on with earnest as a large transport streaked through Earth's sky. The battle scarred vessel was massive, and covered in mismatched armor plating from nose to tail. It wasn't even close to landing yet when the sounds of its thrusters shook the air with the sheer power needed to slow and land the craft. Upon landing, the massive ramp dropped down slowly at first, but the hydraulics gave out causing it to slam into the dirt with great force.

"Slag it, Grimlock! I told you to wait until it was all the way down before stepping on it!" Rang the voice of Swoop, even as the massive form of Grimlock wasted no time lumbering out.

"Can it, Swoop. It needed.. repair... Anyways!" Grimlock rumbled, even as the other Dinobots lumbered after him. Grimlock quickly glanced around at the gathered crowd, before setting his optics on Optimus. "Hnnn... Prime!" He growled. "You have.. Lots of ex-.. explaining to do!" Grimlock did not hold back his annoyance at speaking, it was well known to the Autobots, what Shockwave's tampering had done to his ability to speak clearly.

"Easy old friend, all will be explained in time." Prime stated calmly. "As you can see, much has changed in your absence."

Grimlock growled, but gave the gathered crowd another glance before reason started to creep back into his processor. "You're bigger, Prime. And I see.. new faces. This.. story.. better be good."

"It is a very long story, that will have to wait until we are back at base." Prime offered as he started to walk back toward the Autobot City, glancing back to see if Grimlock followed and indicating Joan to accompany them both as the others returned to base.

"Give me.. the short version." Grimlock insisted, arching an optic ridge at the unfamiliar femme that hurried to catch up. "Who.. you?"

"That is Joan, one of the first of the recently created faction of Maximals. I'll say more on that later. The short version, however, is this: Cybertron has been revived and is being rebuilt. Shockwave and the remainder of the Decepticon faction is in hiding. Shockwave's earlier creations, the Predacons, have formed their own faction, but their intentions remain unclear. Unfortunately, Shockwave's experiments continue.. which resulted both in the unfortunate events that Cyberformed a large chunk of Arizona and led to the creation of the Maximals. The latter were formally human before they got reformatted against their will."

Grimlock growled as he processed the last bit of information. "I see..." He paused as he looked down at Joan. "Why 'Maximal?' Seems an.. odd name."

"We voted on it." Joan explained. "We didn't really care for any of the suggestions that had bot, let alone con in them.. and well.. we're really big and very animalistic in design. So.. someone suggested we were like maximized versions of animals.. which sorta made sense.. and the words combined was a lot better than the other suggestions..." She rambled slightly.

"The running theory is that they are purposely constructed to counteract the Predacons, after their betrayal of Shockwave. Fortunately, Shockwave neglected to put any sort of.. control over them." Prime added.

"Hnnn... sounds like.. Shockwave." Grimlock begrudgingly nodded as they started to enter the city proper, ignoring the others that rushed around them. "Why is she with us? Get tired of old body guards?"

"Grimlock. You know very well that is not the case." Prime sighed. "Joan is here to learn from me, and.. from you."

"Hnn?! What you mean, Prime?" Grimlock demanded.

"The Maximals need someone willing and capable to lead them. I had hoped that another would have taken up that banner, but he chose to remain under my command, and be inducted as an Autobot and to act as a formal liaison between us." Prime explained.

"I really didn't want the position either." Joan supplied. "But I got.. outvoted.. five to one. Jim voted for himself.. but everyone knew better than to vote in the rat." She managed a smile before developing a frown. "Apparently when people.. Humans or Maximal.. see a canine, they think of alpha dogs and usually assume they can lead. And Jack wasn't an option because of his time with the Autobots. They figured he'd be less sympathetic to our plight... even though he's in the same boat as us. So.. now I'm here.. hoping I won't disappoint everyone..."

"I see.. Hnnn..." Grimlock stated thoughtfully. "Why me?"

"Because, Grimlock. Although we have had our differences, you are still a capable warrior and respected leader. Between the two of us, she can learn much." Prime smiled.

"Hnn... I sus-suspect.. you think it would not hurt that I am sym.. sym.." Grimlock growled at the word he wanted to get off the tip of his processor, but couldn't seem to manage.

"Sympathetic?" Prime offered.

"Yes. That." Grimlock nodded.

"While the idea had crossed my processor, I'm afraid Ratchet beat me to it." Prime smirked as Grimlock barked a laugh.

"Hnn Ratchet?! Surprised he was not waiting for us with you!"

"Ratchet, is sadly preoccupied with triaging the recent influx of injuries resulting from the reformatting." Prime Informed him.

"It has been a very.. rough.. transition for everyone involved." Joan nodded.

"Heh! I imagine! Tiny organic get re.. re.." Grimlock paused and for a brief moment, then snarled before simply skipping the word. "To be big like Slug or built like swoop! Ratchet has work cut out for him!" He looked down at Joan and grasped her shoulder with his massive hand, giving her a good shake "You do too! But do.. not worry little primal! We Dinobots, will teach you what Prime can not! Now when is... this meeting? Would like to get full story soon."

"In an hour, go to hangar six." Prime instructed. "We've had to retrofit it for large scale meetings as of late."

Grimlock only grunted in response before looking down at Joan. "Hnnn plenty of time for a spar... so I know what to... un-teach."

Joan's optic went wide as she gazed up at the massive form of Grimlock. _Me_ spare against _him!?_ She thought. _He's _gonna _crush_ me!

"Hn... second thought.. You go spar with Snarl first. I go spar with Prime.. I want to see how much... stronger Prime is now." Grimlock chuckled as Prime facepalmed.

::Line::

Nobody commented on why four of the almost late comers came in covered in dents and marred paint. Even as Ratchet seemed to fume in in his chair the entire time Optimus was bringing everyone up to speed with the current developments on Cybertron and Earth. In fact, if it weren't for Jazz's snickering, it would have been a very quiet start to an otherwise boring meeting. Once Prime took his seat, he gestured to Wheeljack and Jack. "Now, I believe you have additional information you would like to share with us concerning Darkmount?"

Jack nodded as he and Wheeljack stood up and started the projector. "Upon final analysis of the Underbase, we can confirm that we have purged the system of the majority of Shockwave's code. Unfortunately a few programs seem to be running intact, but without direction."

"This makes the entire area a no-go zone for any organic. As one of the programs, despite attempts to shut it down, is continuing to try and reformat organics who tread within its sphere of influence." Wheeljack showed a number of pictures of 'pods' that had enveloped unwitting humans and animals.

"We're currently constructing a perimeter barrier that will extend three miles from its current outer border, with the intention of keeping the wildlife in, and people out." Jack noted as Wheeljack brought up the map of the area with the proposed area.

"Did you jus' say 'current' border? Meanin' its gunna change?" Jazz asked abruptly.

"Yes. The area is slowly expanding at a rate of about one inch per year. However we do not know if this will continue, accelerate, or decelerate in the near future." Wheeljack supplied.

"Perceptor has set up a lab to continue study of the effect in the hope of learning more." Jack added. "In addition, Ratchet has finished his report on the Maximals." Jack gestured to Ratchet as he took a seat, while Wheeljack remained standing.

Ratchet signed heavily as he stood and displayed a few diagrams. "I have good news, bad news, and odd news. The good news is, all of them are in perfect functioning order, and I can fix whatever ails them without issue. Bad news, It doesn't look like there is any way to reverse what has been done. The odd news, however, is that despite their reformat, the Maximals retain a large number of features that resemble that of a human, more than that of a Cybertronian. Namely in their processors for one. The full report will be submitted tonight for detailed reading." Ratchet paused. "I've also put together a detailed briefing that I would like Prowl to give to the newly transformed, if only because of his unbiased demeanor about certain topics that will be brushed upon. "Miko, Jack, Raf, and Joan... I am emailing you a copy so you can review it on your own time." Ratchet paused a moment. "Speaking of you, Joan.. I expect a full explanation as to why you, Prime, Grimlock, and Snarl look like a pile of scrap!"

Jazz snickered as three of the bots looked around sheepishly. Only Grimlock seemed unafraid to answer. "Why Ratchet ask question he already know answer to?"

"Oh he knows, Grimlock, ol' buddy." Jazz chuckled. "He just wishes it weren't true!"

"Too bad, he missed the _fun_." Grimlock chuckled as a number of groans and barely restrained chuckles filled the room.

* * *

Read and review please!

**Deleted lines and outtakes:**


	8. Chapter 8

**Transformers Prime**

_Rise of the Maximals_

_**Disclaimer: **_I do not own transformers or the characters from the show, I only own my OCs and the plot.

_Special note: I use the Dinobots from the aligned (Fall of cybertron) continuity, as they are part of Prime cannon._

* * *

_Chapter 8_

Clang! And once more, Joan was looking up at the stars. Snarl chuckled as he loomed above her before offering a hand up. "Better! But you still move like you were built of a different frame type than you are."

Joan groaned as she accepted the help up. "Because I was a different frame type, remember?"

"Yes.. and you need to stop that. You walk like you had a straight-line frame. While not bad, but they tend to have the weight distribution and flexibility of a cargo hauler. You have better flexibility and better distribution than that." Snarl instructed.

"Lack of flexibility doesn't seem to bother you at all, however." Joan pointed out as she worked out some of the odd soreness in her servos.

"I know how to use it, plus having a solid frame works better for my style of fighting, than trying to hold it solid with servo pressure... which is what you are doing." Snarl pointed out.

"Point taken, so I have a bad habit to break. How do I do that?" Joan frowned as she looked down at some of the minor dents and scratches she gained from the night's sparring.

Snarl scratched his helm as he thought about it. "I'd suggest.. watching how the other femme's move and try to emulate them.. and I mean _try_. I swear that Swiftpaw femme has more flexibility than a length of cable." Snarl chuckled. "You're too heavy built for that. Arcee is also a bad example.. I guess... but she's a two wheeler, and they're all built with slim frames. Eva's closer to a seeker build, so thats right out. Miko... may be your best bet, till Elita and her crew makes planet fall in a couple of days." Snarl paused. "Uhm... don't tell anyone about that. Its supposed to be a surprise."

Joan arched a brow. "Oookay.. dare I ask why?"

"Elita-1 is a scary femme when slagged off? And she wants it to be a surprise for her mech... Optimus." Snarl sheepishly added.

Joan didn't need very long for her to put two and two together. "Ah... I suspect I wont see either of them for a while after." She grinned.

"Primus, I hope their quarters are soundproof!" Snarl laughed. "Anyways, I think we're done for the day... just remember.. try to get out of your old habits when moving... and uh.. use your hip when you throw some bot!"

Joan chuckled as she started walking off. "I'll keep that in mind."

::Who are ya's and whatca' do with the angry bot I use'ta know?:: Jazz transmitted to Snarl just as Joan walked out of sight.

::First off. Slag you, Jazz. I'm under orders to be 'nice.':: Snarl replied.

::Tha's good, but you were more 'an jus' 'nice' back there. You even had 'tact!':: Jazz chuckled.

::Its been a very long time, maybe I'm not quite as angry anymore? You ever think of that Jazz? Maybe I just understand what she's gone through. Or maybe its none of your slagging business!:: Snarl growled into the comm.

::Chill dude, chill! We're cool, remember? 'M jus' givin' you mad props fo' how you handled workin' with her.:: Jazz insisted.

::Don't read too much into it, Jazz. And I swear to Primus, if you try and 'matchmaker' me again, I will toss you into the pit myself!:: Snarl snarled.

::Matchma-.. ohhh I see you've updated yourself on tha' local lingo! Nah, 'm not interested in playin' cupid. Ah' don' think she's interested in ya' in tha' way anyways. She hasn' shown any interest in anybot fo' tha' matter. Probably still sortin' herself out.:: Jazz noted. ::How long till ya' think Elita swoops down an' force feeds her some mo' confidence?::

::Within half an orn after she's done reuniting with the Prime.:: Snarl noted after a long pause. ::Twenty credits if she drags her off physically while in public.:: Snarl smirked.

::That's m' bot! Pool's already up to 200 credits now. Grim's bettin' ambush, by the way. The twins think they'll snag her while she's in recharge.:: Jazz chuckled.

::And what about you?:: Snarl asked.

::Within ten breems after brow beatin' Ratchet for the new femme's medical records, and ordering her ta' meet her in base metals.:: Jazz cheerfully informed.

::You're on, Mech! Heh, I don't think ambushes and sneaking up on her would work too well anyways. Never works on you, wont work on her.:: Snarl noted.

::Want tha' vid where she punched Mirage in tha' mouth?:: Jazz asked.

::. . . Yes!::

::Knew ya' wouldn't disappoint meh Snarl. Enjoy!:: Jazz stated as she transmitted the video file, grinning widely upon hearing Snarl's laughter. "Good to hear that bot laugh, he should do it more often." Jazz stated to no one.

* * *

Joan frowned, she had already angered Ratchet earlier, she didn't really want to annoy him again for the little dings an dents from further sparring. She considered her options carefully. Wheeljack, despite his reputation, seemed friendly enough, and might have the equipment she needs to take care of the minor damage. Besides, she wanted to talk to him about building a rig so she can get back into photography.

Finding Wheeljack was easy. His lab was the only building that stood a good distance away from any other building. Not to mention, it was the only building that seemed to be in a perpetual state of repair. Massive metal patches covered numerous holes and blackened metal lined the openings where smoke had came billowing out. It was enough to give her second thoughts about asking him for help. Tacked on the door was a small digital sign that read. "It has been 3 days, since a Wheeljack related explosion."

Joan shook her head, it had to be a joke. Still she figured it best to ring the buzzer, rather than barge in. Upon pressing it, she heard Wheeljack yell. "Come in! Its safe!" Joan hesitated, almost expecting something contrary to his statement to happen. When it did not, she opened the door and glanced around. She briefly noted the door seemed to be whisper quiet for some odd reason. To say Wheeljack's lab was cluttered, would be an insult to clutter. Joan couldn't make heads or tails of what any of it was.. save for the half rebuilt ship that dominated the far corner.

"Ah.. Wheeljack? Where are you?" Joan shouted, as she tried to glance around some of the larger piles and racks of projects.

"Oh, Joan! Uhh.. take a left at the first pile and follow the racks back down to the Jackhammer here, and turn right. Try not to knock anything over." Wheeljack instructed.

Joan grimaced as she squeezed past some of the piles of junk, wondering how in the hell Wheeljack can work, let alone live like this. Eventually she managed to make her way to him without any incident. Wheeljack himself was busy soldering together circuit boards for some project or another. "Ah.. you're busy."

"Not really, this is more of a side project. Since we got the fabber up and running, I've had less work orders to take up my time... erm.. how're you holding up? I see you've been sparring with the Dinobots again." Wheeljack noted as he started searching his workbench for something.

"Yeah, I dont want to bother Ratchet about the damage.. and was wondering if you had anything I can use to take care of it... also I wanted to talk to you about building a rig or something so I can get back into photography." Joan asked.

"Hmm, your auto-repair should be enough for the dents, unlike last time where you had.. a rather impressive one." Wheeljack chuckled. "I've got some touch up paint and some applicators for the scuffs you can use. Erm, tell me more about what you need for photography? I'm guessing just running a feed off your optics isn't enough."

"Thanks 'Jack." Joan smiled. "And yeah.. I need something that gives the same range and control my old camera did. Not to mention the flexibility it gave me." She paused to un-subspace her camera, which seemed almost toy like in size in her hands now.

Wheeljack carefully picked it up and examined it before setting it on a tray on his workbench. "I'll see what I can come up with.. perhaps a small drone you can operate from a datapad?"

"That could work, so long as its stable." Joan nodded as Wheeljack went sorting through a drawer and handing her a few items.

"Oh, Perceptor told me your friends should be out of the capture pods in about a week, something about everything in a certain radius taking longer than the others did. Thinks it corresponds with a wave function based on the EMP that hit the core." Wheeljack noted.

Joan blinked and grimaced. "I hope they are okay. I've been worried about them since the... event." She paused. "Why wasn't I told about this earlier?"

"Well, you knew they were in pods already, but Perceptor didn't think that it was worth telling you until he had a more definite ETA. He didn't want to get your hopes up." Wheeljack suggested as he rummaged in different drawer for some small paint tins. "We'll notify you when they come closer to opening up.. I figure you want to be there for them."

Joan managed a smile. "Thanks, I owe ya. I'm just glad Madjack wasn't in the middle of that." She chuckled.

"Yeeah... about that..." Wheeljack stated sheepishly. Before, Joan could ask what he meant, Wheeljack answered. ".. You see.. I'm MadJack1984" Wheeljack winced, bracing for the worst.

Joan stared, mouth agape as the pieces fell in together. Wheeljack. The Autobot's legendary Mad Scientist. Mad Scientist. Wheel Jack. Mad Jack. She face palmed as it snapped together sol quickly "Oh slag, how did I not put this together sooner?! .. You told me you were a chemist!"

"Well.. I am... I'm also an engineer and a soldier... so.. I technically didn't lie.. I just told you about the parts that were believable." Wheeljack offered weakly.

".. I messaged you! After we had met! You acted like you hadn't met me! Why didn't you tell me then!?" Joan accused.

"Because he doesn't have the common sense he was sparked with!" Came Ratchet's voice from around a corner. "... I knew my Wheeljack sense was tingling for some reason." He grumbled as he rounded the corner, datapad in one hand, wrench in another.

Joan turned and sputtered at Ratchet as he handed Wheeljack the datapad, then smacked him on the helm with the wrench. "I need those by tomorrow, and that was for being to stupid to realize you should of told her sooner!" Ratchet turned to Joan. "And you!" Ratchet smacked Joan upside the helm with the wrench, causing her to cringe. "You are going to forgive the glitch, because he had your best interests in mind, got it?!"

"Yes Ratchet.." They both echoed.

"Good! And furthermore!" Ratchet intoned. ".. Tracks just reported in. Please try not to kill him. Yes, he's worse than Mirage.. but he's good at what he does.. and knows it." Joan and Wheeljack blinked. "I'm not giving you permission to wreck him... but I understand if you need to..." Ratchet held up his hands as he started to walk out. "I'm not saying any more."

There was along uncomfortable silence as they waited for Ratchet to leave. "Soo... Wheeljack.. sense?" Joan arched a brow at Wheeljack.

"Something Miko started when Ratchet mentioned.. well.. he and I.. we've known each other a very long time." Wheeljack shrugged. "And I was.. sort of his inspiration to become a medic."

Joan face palmed. "And here I thought you were kidding about the lab explosions you mentioned on skype... and your hand falling off."

"Ah.. surprise?" Wheeljack forced a grin.

* * *

Megatron stared at the screen, watching the image of Darkmount's ruins with interest. His back turned to Shockwave and Starscream. "Report." He demanded calmly.

"The loss of the Underbase operation is within projected parameters. We have now begun the recruitment and insertion of double agents in the ranks of the newly forming 'Maximal' faction, as ordered My lord." Shockwave responded.

"Be sure to remind them their orders are simply to observe and report until told otherwise." Megatron insisted.

"As you wish, Lord Megatron." Shockwave answered.

"The Insecticons have reported successful integration into the Predacon ranks. A raid against the Autobots is planned in the future, but currently held back by more pressing matters, Lord Megatron." Starscream informed. "Troop recall is at 72% and construction of the new fortress underground is nearly complete."

"Very good." Megatron smiled. "Soon, the Predacon faction will be under our sway, and we will have optics and audios within the Autobot ranks. And once the Autobots and Maximals crush the leadership of the Predacons, we'll seize full control from the shadows. We can ill afford to lose our own numbers in the coming conflict. Even the Autobots know this. So until we can fully rebuild our armies We shall conduct a shadow war with these bestial Cybertronians. Let the records show, this is the beginning of what shall be known as the Beast Wars!"

* * *

Read and review please!

What? Ya'll knew there had to be a beast wars!

**Deleted lines and outtakes:**

"_Spar?_ Dinobots don't spar, they _brawl._" -Ratchet

"Surprise my aft!" -Joan, after gibsmacking Wheeljack


	9. Chapter 9

**Transformers Prime**

_Rise of the Maximals_

_**Disclaimer: **_I do not own transformers or the characters from the show, I only own my OCs and the plot.

_Special note: I use the Dinobots from the aligned (Fall of cybertron) continuity, as they are part of Prime cannon._

* * *

_Chapter 9_

Joan growled at the data pads stacked in front of her. It was a sick joke. It had to be! "Remind me again why Jack couldn't takes this job?" She snarled up at Jazz, who just kept smiling. "Not even a day has gone by since it was made official and I'm already dealing with reports..."

Jazz laughed. "Dun growl at meh! 'M jus' tha' messenger. An' Jack canna' do it 'cuz he's too closely tied to tha' Autobots and tha government. People don' trust either very well yet."

Joan groaned and rubbed her faceplate. She hated it, but Jazz was right. The fact that so many Maximals were about ready to jump on the bandwagon on propping her up as 'leader' was bothersome and worrying as well. It didn't feel right, it didn't feel 'natural' to her. She could understand why people followed Prime, at least.. he had a charisma and air of leadership about him that was almost tangible. She on the other hand, felt like the underpaid intern that got suddenly told to run the whole company while everyone else went on vacation. "If this is _any_ indication of how things are going to be from now on, I am going to need help.. lots and lots of help." Joan grimaced as she held up a datapad filled with complaints.

"So get sum help?" Jazz suggested. "Appoint bots ta handle certain things... 'n delegate. Even da' Prime don' handle every thin' 'imself."

Joan blinked and thought about who she could have doing what before smiling. "Thanks Jazz. I needed that."

Jazz grinned and waved as he slipped out the door. "Have fun wi' that!"

Joan chuckled before composing herself and sending a message to her impromptu 'team' that she's been assigned to lead. ::Okay, heads up. I got missions for ya'll, and I need to know who can do what. I got a fat stack of reports on my desk, and this is only a fraction of what is soon to come. I can't do all of this myself, and Prowl isn't going to sort it for me forever. So I either need volunteers, ideas, or victims. Choose wisely.::

Eva responded first. ::If its all the same, I can take over the security stuff as far as getting things done, I'd like to tap Jim to help me with poking holes though. I was a cop before.. so it only makes sense.::

::What, why me?:: Jim complained.

::Are you saying you haven't already figured out where all the holes in the city's security are?:: Eva asked.

::Well I didn't say tha-:: Jim responded before getting cut off.

::Very good, I'll put you both down as volunteer and victim for security matters.:: Joan smirked.

::Put me down as Valkyrie, now Ma'am.:: Eva.. now Valkyrie replied. ::Swiftpaw's idea... I'll respond to Val if you like.::

::Rodger. Anyone else got new names I need to know about?:: Joan asked.

::I think everyone else is still toying with the idea.:: Robin replied.

Joan noted the reverberating affirmation through the comm lines. ::Well, one issue sorted, any others?::

::I got a question actually.:: Robin stated. ::Wheres the folk that normally handle all of this? We got three cities' worth of people, easy. Those cities have their own elected officials and stuff. Surely they should be handling most of this? Why are they fobbing this all on you?::

::Good question.:: Joan noted. ::You mind tracking them down and finding out?::

::Yeah, I'll do it. I kinda want Mack and Swifty.. err Swiftpaw.. along for the tracking down. We'll see if we can't get these guys to start doing their jobs again.:: Robin supplied.

::Noted and done, if there are no objections?:: Joan asked.

::None here, but when I get done I want to get some accounting done on how well armed we are. I've been talking to the bots, and I have a feeling we're going to be dealing with those cons sooner, or later... and I want us to be ready.:: Mack replied.

::I've got no objections... and I'll help with the sorting later.:: Swiftpaw added.

::Good!:: Joan smiled. ::That leaves.. Conrad. What are you up to?::

Conrad grumbled. ::I was a bit of an aircraft mechanic... I suppose I can go buddy up to Ratchet and see about getting training to fixing bots... It'll give me something to do at least.::

::Alrighty, ya'll have your tasks. Best get a move on!:: Joan stated.

::Right chief!:: Came several replies.

Joan relaxed a little before looking down at the datapads before her and sighing. ::What do ya' know, ya' might make a Prime yet!:: Came Jazz's voice over her comm.

::Listened in the whole time did you?:: Joan accused as she started picking through the datapads.

::O' course!:: Jazz chuckled. To which Joan's only reply was to send an image file of someone throwing a book at another person.

* * *

To say Robin was irritated, would be an understatement. It wasn't that tracking down the politicians was hard, no. If anything it was annoyingly easy. Only a handful seemed to be actively trying to do their jobs, while the others kept citing excuses as to why they couldn't. But it was obvious, well obvious to him, what they were doing. "They're all trying to set her up for failure." He growled. "I hate slagging politics."

"Not _all_ of them. Just a depressingly large number of them." Mack groaned. "Even if we could force them to do their jobs, they'd just find another way to sabotage her to make themselves look better afterwards." He grunted. "We need to find replacements."

"Oh pissh. Thats easy enough. Theres no shortage of people who think they can do a better job than the guys that got elected." Swiftpaw proclaimed. "The difference is that they usually didn't have the money or connections to get the position... now we're kinda all on an even field.. and it shouldn't be hard to convince people to hold an.. emergency election." She grinned broadly. "Just let me handle it, you two keep poking around for the other guys."

Before Mack or Robin could stop her, she was already dashing off into the distance. Robin looked to Mack. "I've a feeling she's done this before..."

"Political Science Major and bane to many a student council... I went to high school with her." Mack stated after a moment's pause. "She's got a talent of tongue.. and not in the lewd way."

"Really? Never really pegged her for it.." Robin noted. "What about you?"

Mack chuckled. "I wanted to be a soldier. An army ranger to be more precise. Fucked up my hips in training.. got sent home in a wheelchair. Best thing about what happened is being able to walk again."

"That explains all the jogging around the base late at night... I am.. was.. still am technically.. a Law student... and a bit of a bow hunter." Robin smirked. "Insert Robin Hood joke here."

"Nah, too obvious." Mack chuckled. "Who's next on the list?"

"Well, if we can find the mayor of Jasper, that would be just _dandy_."

* * *

"Almost time for orbital insertion." Moonracer announced over the comms, not bothering to look back into the darkened cabin of the craft she was piloting. "Best strap in to ride out the bumps. Earth's got a decent atmosphere."

"I'm sure the fliers are thrilled." Elita responded as she strapped herself into the command chair. "What's our entry path?"

"As per the instructions forwarded over from Grimlock's team, we're making our entry over the.. Pacific Ocean, to avoid breaking the sound barrier over population centers. From there we'll make a straight shot in to Autobot city and preform a vertical drop landing." Moonracer replied.

"Why is it called Earth anyways..? Its more water than dirt, near as I can tell." Chromia asked as she likewise buckled in.

"You'd have to ask the locals. The humans." Elita stated as she looked at the consoles. "Personally, I'll be too busy for a few cycles to ask."

"Ha! I can't wait to see Optimus's faceplate when he sees you." Moonracer giggled.

Firestar and Greenlight quickly slipped intot he cabin to strap themselves in. "Personally I'm looking forward to learning more about this planet." Greenlight stated. "And I want to get a look at these new bots that were hinted at in the report we were forwarded."

"Well, you'll get your wish soon enough! Breaching atmosphere in Three... two.. one!" Moonracer informed just before the ship shuddered as it hit the atmosphere. Silence ensued, save for the groans and creeks of metal as the ship carved a path through the sky. A silence that was suddenly broken just moments before the ride smoothed out with a deafening shriek of metal.. followed by a thump.

"Was that just the heat shielding on our nose breaking off?" Firestar asked. "Didn't I tell you to weld that in place before we left?" She eyed the back of Moonracer's helm.

"Uhm, cant talk now! Focusing!" Moonracer quickly replied.

"Oh cut her some slack, 'star. We got here safe enough, and its not like we need it to land." Chromia chided. "Besides, I checked it myself.. It looked good to me.. probably got loosened up when we had to pass through the debris field."

"We passed through.. what?! I thought you said there wasn't any space conflict around this planet!" Firestar yelled.

"Relax. Its not combat debris." Greenlight calmly noted. "Leftovers from primitive forays into space... damaged satellites, and such. The Earth governments have a strict ban on military power in space."

"Not to mention bans on what kinds of weapons are allowed in war... its a funny planet." Chromia chuckled.

"Rather impressive, for an organic species. I would say." Greenlight noted as she whipped out a datapad. "Extremely fast technological evolution. Highly aggressive as well, but they've always managed to stop short of destroying their own biosphere... which is more than we can say for our own war."

"They have the capability to destroy their own biosphere?" Firestar asked, suddenly retrieving her own datapad and quickly scrolling through it.

"For quite some time, yes. Using primitive nuclear weapons." Greenlight nodded. "Though when I say primitive, I'm only referring to the technology involved. These weapons are exceedingly powerful. It is amazing only two were ever utilized in war. The very first war to see them implemented was also the very last."

"So they have just a bit more.. common sense.. when it comes to utilizing weapons of mass destruction. I'd count that as encouraging." Chromia stated offhandedly.

"So what's to stop a crazed despot from using them?" Elita asked as she relaxed in her seat.

"Something called.. M. A. D.. apparently if someone uses nukes... the policy states its fair game to use nukes against them in retaliation.. so mutually assured destruction." Greenlight winced. "Thats just.. spiteful."

"Hah! I like these humans already." Chromia chuckled.

"Well you'll meet some soon enough, we're coming up for landing. Quite a few bots and.. wow.. didn't think humans were so tiny..." Moonracer blinked as she peered at the monitor.

"Focus on landing Moonracer. You'll have plenty of time to oggle the natives later." Elita reminded.

"Right! Sorry!"

* * *

Optimus watched the ship with trepidation, wondering just who might emerge from it. There more than a few old friends he hadn't seen in such a long time.. that he wondered if they were still alive. His thoughts stalled as the first figure emerged from the ship's hatch. His spark raced.. all worries momentarily forgotten as the familiar figure approached him. "Elita..?"

"Good to know I still got it." She smiled as she approached Optimus.. leaning into him and looking up at his speechless face. "You've changed since we last seen each other.. I like it."

Optimus responded by sweeping the femme off her feet and pulling her into a kiss. "And you, you haven't changed since the day I fell in love with you."

Catcalls sounded and Optimus glanced around,his faceplate growing hot. "Perhaps, we should continue this in a more private location.. I've much to tell you."

"That sounds like a plan, love." Elita grinned as Optimus carted her off, leaving the crowd of chuckling spectators behind.

Moonracer exited the ship just in time to see them leaving. "Aw.. hullnuts! I missed it!"

Firestar chuckled and clamped an hand over her shoulder. "Relax, I'm sure someone took pictures... now lets get to meeting the new bots. Prime's not going to be interested in introducing us for a while."

Moonracer snickered as Prowl and Jazz approached, followed by Joan and Valkyrie. Jazz spoke first. "See'n tha' Prime is now occupied wi' personal matta's.. On his behalf.. I'de like ta welcome yah to Earth."

"Long time no see, Jazz. Wheres' Ironhide?" Chromia asked as she gazed into the crowd.

"Hide's out on Patrol, but I've already sent a message along.. he'll be here shortly." Jazz smiled. "An' b'fore ah forget.. These two femmes are tha' head of tha' new Maximal group... well.. most of em. Theres another, but he's off on an errand." Jazz chuckled before pointed at each. "Joan's tha' current leader of tha' group.. practically a Prime in trainin.' And Valkyrie is her security officer.."

"A pleasure to meet you all." Joan smiled as she put out a hand to shake hands.. only to realize none of the femme's knew what the gesture meant.

Prowl broke up the awkwardness of the situation, much to Joan's relief, to explain. "Its tradition in local human culture to grasp each other's hands in greeting and shake." He transmitted a few file images to the confused femmes. "Thought I had included that in the datafile I sent to Grimlock.. but it appears I was mistaken."

Greenlight pulled out her datapad, and quickly scrolled through. "No.. its there.. we just.. skipped over it." She groaned and rubbed her faceplate. "I think we all just skipped to the bits we were interested in."

"Wait.. you knew we were coming? And you didn't tell Prime?" Chromia blinked as she pointed a finger at Prowl's chest.

"Indeed, while I initially thought about telling Prime. I determined it was better to go along with Elita's plan. Optimus would get more work done if he wasn't aware of her coming, and Elita would not be torqued at me for ruining the surprise."

Joan chuckled. "If her getting torqued at you actually affected your decisions... she must be hell on wheels when she's mad."

"Ya dun' nailed it on tha' head. She may not hurt ya' but she'll give ya tha' look and ya' jus' wanna crawl in a hole an die." Jazz affirmed.

"Doesn't hurt that she appears to be Prime's main squeeze." Valkyrie added with a smirk. "Never a good idea to tick off your CO's wife. They have a way to make your life miserable."

Chromia grinned as she looked off into the distance. "I'll catch up with you all later.. I got a reunion of my own to attend. Firestar, you and Greenlight keep Moonracer out of trouble. Joan, Valkyrie? It was.. nice to meet you both... good to see another couple of femmes in charge." She grinned and dashed off to tackle Ironhide the moment he stepped through the crowd.

"So enough with the formal stuff already! I wanna see things! And do things! You have any idea how long I've been cooped up on that boring ship?!" Moonracer insisted.

"C'mon, lets get ya set up with an alt mode in tha' local flavor... then we can show ya' aroun'" Jazz grinned.

* * *

Read and review please!

**Deleted lines and outtakes:**

"One of these days, Jazz. You are going to listen in on something you regret listening in on." - Joan to Jazz.

"Been there, scrubbed dat file." - Jazz's rebuttal.

"So you sue the rich to give money to the poor?" - Bad joke #1

"Well I always thought Lawyers were thieves and bandits..." -Bad joke #2

"I guess the interns would be your merry men?" - Bad Joke #3


End file.
